I'll Never Tell
by EGB Fan
Summary: There's a demon on the loose. Again. But this time it could be REALLY bad news for the Extreme Ghostbusters, their friends and acquaintances.


**Disclaimer: **_Ghostbusters _© Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. _Extreme Ghostbusters_ © Fil Barlow, Jeff Kline and Richard Raynis. The Spengler Twins and Charlene Zeddemore © Fritz Baugh. All other original characters © the author i.e. me.

_Extreme Ghostbusters: _**I'll Never Tell**

There was something categorically _safe_ about a morning date. You had time for breakfast… and that was all. It would be silly to try and get into a discussion with any degree of depth, because you'd both have to run off halfway through. Grace Temple was aware of this, and couldn't help wondering if there was any particular reason why she was usually asked out to breakfast on a weekday, rather than dinner on a Friday or Saturday night. It just didn't feel right to her that their most frequented venue was a café specialising in bagels.

"Roland," she said. "We should get together this weekend. You could come and spend the day with Natalie and me, and then we could" - she tried to sound casual without overdoing it - "drop her off with Spence around dinnertime, and she could spend the night with him while you and I go out for dinner or something."

Roland Jackson was silent for a few moments. Then he said, "Yeah, ok, sounds good."

"It does, doesn't it?" said Grace. "Spence always asks me in for coffee when I drop Nat off at his place - it'd be a good opportunity for you to start getting to know him."

Roland muttered something that sounded rather like, "I don't want to get to know him."

"What?"

"_Why _do you want me to get to know him?"

"Because he's a nice guy."

"Yeah, well… so what if he is? I don't see what he has to do with you and me."

Grace sighed heavily. "Roland…"

"Yeah, I know," he said quickly. "If Spencer and I are at loggerheads then Natalie's not happy, and if Natalie's not happy you're not happy."

"That's not all," said Grace. "Roland… I like you, I really do. In fact, I like you more every time I see you."

Roland raised his eyebrows. "But…?"

"But I'm having a real problem with your inability to forgive."

"I _can_ forgive!" Roland said at once. "I've forgiven plenty of people before. But the thing about Spencer is… well, has it ever happened to you?"

"Yes," said Grace. "Nothing major, but yes. They were just some stupid kids, like Spencer was when _he_ did it - and if you're going to ask me if I could forgive them, then the answer is yes. You must realise that Spence didn't even _mean_ any of it."

"That's not the point. He shouldn't have done it."

"See, this is exactly my point. He _did_ do it, and there's nothing anybody can do about that now, so why dwell on it? The most _he_ can do is be sorry, learn from it and try to do better, all of which he's doing. There's just no _point_ in harbouring resentment."

"Well I'm sorry," said Roland, "but it's not that easy."

"It is," said Grace. "_I've_ done it. I've even had to forgive Spencer - not for racism, obviously, but what he did after we were married was pretty lousy. But holding a grudge wouldn't have done anybody any good at all - you just have to let go."

"I - "

"You can _try_, can't you?"

There was a brief silence. Then Roland said, "Sure. I can try."

"Right," said Grace. "Good. I'll call him later and see if he can have Natalie to stay on Saturday night, and then I'll let you know. And we sorted _that_ out just in the nick of time, look - we both need to get to work," and she gestured towards the wall clock above the heads of the people serving at the bar.

When they were outside the café, at which point they had to separate straightaway, Roland stooped to kiss Grace on the cheek. That, in a month and a half of occasional and extremely casual dating, was about as far as they had got. If ever they touched, it was always very chaste, and Grace didn't mind that in itself. She had been single for a very long time. She'd tried dating again a few times, but even those men who weren't scared away by the fact that she had a child would never stay for long after learning the level of commitment she expected before she would sleep with them.

But Grace sensed that Roland, to quote a cliché, was different. She could tell that he not only tolerated, but actually _liked_ her seven-year-old daughter; he wasn't in any hurry to get physical, and Grace really did love spending time with him. So quite honestly, she would have liked their relationship to be progressing a bit more smoothly. What irritated her most was that she really could understand Roland's point of view. He quite accepted that Natalie had to be a big part of their relationship, but why should this be extended to Spencer? He was Grace's ex-husband - he shouldn't be coming between them.

But, at the same time, Grace thought that her arguments were perfectly reasonable - more so than Roland's. Natalie's happiness had to come first for her - and besides, if there was one thing about Roland Jackson to make her doubt that she could love him, it was his flat refusal to give a second chance to a repentant man.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Roland arrived at the firehouse, his eyes were drawn to a poster in the window depicting a handsome young man, topless and just oozing sex from every pore of his body and every fibre of his tightly fitting jeans. There was a short explanatory caption a few inches from the ready and alert right nipple, but Roland wouldn't have needed to read it even if he hadn't already seen this particular poster on his younger sister's bedroom wall. He recognised the young man straightaway as Oscar Venkman, his boss's stepson.

"Isn't it amazing," said Janine Spengler, as Roland approached the reception desk, "the way his crotch seems to follow you into the building?"

"Can I take it you don't approve?" asked Roland.

"I feel very strongly that one can take things too far," said Janine, gesturing to the wall behind her on which sat another poster, this one predominately covered with words: "_Killerwatt: _The Debut Album By **MOOD SLIME**! Out Monday September 17th".

"Dr. Venkman just wants him to be successful," Roland said reasonably.

"A couple of posters stuck up around this place _really_ isn't going to make that much difference," said Janine. "I'm no expert on advertising, but I think teenage girls are the primary target audience for _that _one, and how many of those come by here?"

"Well, there's AJ," said Roland, referring to his sister Amy, "but she and her friends all reserved their copies of the album weeks ago."

"I'll bet they did. Does she regret dumping him yet?"

"I don't know, Janine - she doesn't tell me anything anymore."

They were interrupted as a slick little silver car pulled into the foyer and Peter Venkman climbed out of the driver's seat, looking uncharacteristically chipper for that time of the morning. Before even acknowledging Janine and Roland's presence, he opened one of the back doors of the car and bent down, and his upper body disappeared inside. When he emerged seconds later, Peter was holding a fairly sizeable cardboard box, which he dumped right on top of the paperwork Janine had been doing.

"Good morning, all," he said brightly. "But I see we aren't all here. Are there some more people upstairs?"

"Eduardo, Garrett and Egon are all there," said Janine.

"Yeah? When's Kylie coming in?"

"This afternoon, all being well. What's so urgent?"

"I shall fetch the remaining half of the work force," said Peter, sauntering towards the stairs, "and then all will be revealed."

Five minutes later, Janine and four Ghostbusters were each clutching a black t-shirt with the words _"Mood Slime"_ oozing down the chest in a very daring pink. Garrett Miller looked positively delighted, and was already pulling his t-shirt over his head. Eduardo Rivera didn't look bothered one way or the other. Roland, however, was looking rather dubious, while Janine and her husband Egon were both flatly refusing to comply.

"I think that's very disloyal," Peter said self-righteously. "When _your_ son gets his PhD, I'll wear a t-shirt advertising his thesis. Now then." He began rummaging around in his cardboard box, muttering to himself, "That's Kylie's, she can have it when she gets here… Ah! Now then." He looked at each of them in turn, with the exception of Roland, his hands still in the box. "I'm afraid they don't make the t-shirts in the kiddie sizes - some bullshit about inappropriate lyrics or something - but I would ask you all to show your support by forcing your children to wear these."

He lifted his hands out of the box, now holding three black baseball caps in his right hand and two in his left. Predictably, the caps all bore the same pink liquid-like logo as the t-shirts. Peter thrust the two items in his left hand at Eduardo, and then handed one each to Egon, Janine and Garrett.

"Well I'll ask them," said Janine, "but I'm not going to force them."

"Rose will never agree to this," said Eduardo.

"She likes black, doesn't she?" Peter said reasonably. "And there's some pink on there for Conchita - everyone wins. What about Max?" he asked, turning to Garrett. "How is he with hats?"

"Not good," Garrett said apologetically. "We've just about persuaded him to keep his clothes on while he's at preschool, but the rest of the time he kinda prefers being naked."

"Really?" asked Peter. "Since when?"

"Last week."

"My kids both went through a phase of always taking their clothes off - I'm sure he'll be over it soon. Oh, hello," as a young woman suddenly announced her presence by coughing politely. No one knew how long she had been standing there. "Did you see the poster? He sounds as good as he looks, you know - the album's coming out on Monday."

"Dr. Venkman!" hissed Janine. Then, addressing the young woman, she said, "I do apologise for him. Can I help you?"

"I hope so," the woman said nervously. "My name's Karen Watson - I'm a forensic anthropologist for the NYPD. I don't suppose you're familiar with the Jackie Thompson case? It's not well known - she - "

"Died," Eduardo cut in. "No one knows why, and her family's been pressuring the police to find out that she was murdered. My brother's a cop," he added. "He's not involved with the case, but he's been fuming about it anyway. 'You can't just _find something out_ because somebody tells you to…'"

"Well, no, you can't," Karen Watson agreed. "I've had her daughters and her husband all over my ass, trying to get me to do another autopsy and find… I don't know… poison in her bloodstream or a dent in the back of her skull or something. But I've already done _one_ autopsy - that's in addition to the first one - and I _do not know how the woman died_! Sometimes people just die for no apparent reason. It's rare in adults, but it happens. But the family won't leave us alone, and we're getting pretty sick of it, so I suggested coming to you and my bosses said I could and they'd pay for it," she finished summarily.

"I'm glad," Egon said at once. "I'm familiar with the case too - she's one of three people to have died for apparent reason over the last two weeks, isn't she? Actually I was considering looking into it myself, if no one called us in."

Karen nodded. "The other two families have just accepted it and are trying to move on. Why can't everybody be like that?"

"If there's something paranormal involved, then it's better that you came to us," said Egon. "If you give us a few minutes, we'll be right with you."

"You three," said Peter, as Garrett, Roland and Eduardo started heading for the lockers. "I can't make Egon do it, but I am definitely _your_ boss and I am _ordering_ you to wear those t-shirts."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Once she had taken them to the police lab and told Egon to help himself to whatever he needed, Karen looked faintly put out when he began to go through a lot of the same procedures with Jackie Thompson's body as she had done. The corpse looked more asleep than dead, which didn't come as a surprise to Egon or any of the three younger Ghostbusters - this woman's death was, after all, baffling every scientist that went near her, in which case why _should_ she actually look as if she was dead?

"I already checked her blood twice," said Karen, when Egon asked if she still had the sample she had taken.

"Did you check it for paranormal activity?" Egon asked levelly.

"Well… no."

"There isn't much you three can do here," said Egon, while Karen was fetching her test tube of blood. "Well, Garrett, actually I would like you to assist me - you have some experience with medical matters. Roland, Eduardo - I want you to take the Ecto-1 and call on Mrs. Thompson's family, and the families of the other two victims - I'm sure someone here will be able to give you addresses for them."

"They'll hate that," Eduardo said at once.

"I know," said Egon, "but there's _definitely_ something paranormal involved here, so I want us to gather as many pieces of the puzzle as we possibly can. I can't draw any conclusions until I've completed my analysis of Mrs. Thompson. We'll meet back at the firehouse as soon as we're done and compare notes."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Around eleven o'clock, Roland and Eduardo drove away from the Khan household with only a series of tearful "I'm sorry, I don't know"s from the dead woman's mother. She had let them go over the house with their PKE meters but, apart from the odd blip here and there, any trail was completely cold.

"At the next one," said Roland, "how about _I_ skulk around in the driveway while _you_ talk to the bereaved family?"

"I'm no good at that kind of thing," said Eduardo.

"_Why_ not? You're always chipping in with useful little hints you've picked up from your police background - didn't you ever learn anything about dealing with victims' families?"

"Roland, you've met my brother. Does he look like the kind of cop they send to talk to bereaved relatives? They usually get women to do that. The men either go out stalking criminals with their guns, or they sit around in their offices and _think_."

"I'll bet Kylie _loves _that," said Roland.

"She and I agree that the police force has a lot of issues that need addressing."

"They look for links between the victims, don't they? Why aren't _we_ doing that?"

"Well," said Eduardo, "there's been a fifty-four-year-old white woman, a twenty-year-old Asian woman and a thirty-five-year-old white man."

"Right, well," said Roland. "We're calling on the Thompsons next - that should be easier, they're _looking_ for answers."

As it turned out, Roland was absolutely right: Steve Thompson welcomed the two Ghostbusters into his home with no hesitation whatsoever.

"My daughters are both at college," he said, once he had offered them both a seat in the living room and begun pacing in front of them, "but I don't know what they could tell you. They weren't here when she died. Now look, before it happened I never would have considered ghosts or anything of the sort, but there must be _some_ explanation!"

"Of course, Mr. Thompson," Roland said soothingly. "Our boss has already found evidence of paranormal activity."

"She died in her sleep," Eduardo cut in. "That's right, isn't it?"

"That's right," said Steve, his voice shaking considerably. "I woke up in the morning and she… she didn't."

"I need you to tell us everything you can remember," said Roland. "Just tell us everything you can, as it comes to you."

"We hadn't been doing anything unusual," said Steve. He stopped pacing then, looked at them and blinked a few times at the Mood Slime t-shirts. "It was Friday night, our daughters had both gone out with their boyfriends… Jackie and I ate dinner and watched TV like we always do. We went to bed and… you know the rest.."

"How did she look?" Eduardo asked bluntly, aware that Jackie Thompson's facial features might have been moved about a bit during her autopsy. Or rather, her autopsies. "Did she look like she'd had a scare? Do you think she saw what killed her?"

"It didn't look that way," said Steve. "She just looked… tired."

"How long have you lived in this house?" asked Roland.

"Since we got married - twenty-six years."

"And nothing like this has ever happened before?"

"No, of course not."

Once the interview was over, Roland and Eduardo began a search of the house, but again they found nothing. They took their leave, telling Steve Thompson that they would keep him informed of the progress of their investigation, and then spent a couple of minutes just sitting in stunned silence in the Ecto-1.

"That poor guy," Roland said at last.

"And those poor girls," added Eduardo.

"Yeah."

"So… it's something that just suddenly shows up in your house and kills you for no apparent reason."

"And with no apparent method. That's… horrible."

"How the hell are we ever supposed to find it?" asked Eduardo.

"Well, let's wait and see what Egon comes up with," said Roland. "And Michael Wheeler's family, of course."

"I could do with a break before we go to see them," said Eduardo. "Could we maybe grab an early lunch first?"

Lunch ended up being pizza with a side of order of potato wedges. They ate in silence for a few long minutes, and then Roland said suddenly, "Do you think I should be able to forgive Spencer?"

Eduardo blinked. "I… I don't know."

"Have _you_ forgiven him?"

"Well… Roland… I didn't see quite as much of him as you did. I mean, he never actually _did_ anything to me."

"Yes he did," argued Roland. "We went to find Garrett at the gym - you and I got frowned at."

"Yeah, I know. But when I think about it, I'm pretty sure Spencer didn't frown at anyone. He just sort of… stood around looking sheepish."

"He made that 'this is a private club' comment, Eddie - and anyway, he knew what was going on and he let it. And he _did_ graffiti that synagogue - Garrett saw him do it."

"Well," said Eduardo, "we all… well, maybe _you_ didn't, but I did stupid things as a kid. I don't think I did anything _that_ bad, but that's not the point - he _was_ just a stupid kid."

"You think I should forgive him too," Roland said accusingly.

Eduardo shook his head. "I don't think anything - it's none of my business."

Roland sighed heavily. "I don't know what to do."

"I'm going to ask you a question," said Eduardo. "You don't have to answer me because it's none of my business, but I'm going to ask. How keen are you on Grace?"

Roland laughed dryly. "When she's not harping on about Spencer… well, I wish she wouldn't, but… I don't want to stop seeing her."

"Would you rather forgive Spencer or lose Grace?"

"That's oversimplifying it," said Roland.

"No it's not," said Eduardo. "That's all it is. _You're_ overcomplicating it."

Roland seemed to have no answer to this, and the silence returned. It was almost a relief when the time came to call on Michael Wheeler's wife. Both Roland and Eduardo were gripped with a sense of dread, however, when their knock on the door was answered by a teary-eyed woman with milk stains on her t-shirt and a screaming baby on her arm.

"M-Mrs. Wheeler?" ventured Roland. "We're, um, we're Ghostbusters."

"_Ghostbusters_?" the woman said loudly. "What the hell are _you_ doing here?"

"It's… about your husband," Roland said tentatively.

"I don't _know_ what killed him, ok?" yelled the woman. "If you think I've been casting voodoo enchantments or something you can just… just…"

"Why would we think that?" asked Roland.

"Well, _some_ people seem to think that I killed him. I had the police over here, you know, last week. _Twice_! _And_ I've been dragged to the police station! I. Have been. _Arrested_! They couldn't charge me - they've got no evidence! Well of _course_ they don't have any evidence! _I_ didn't kill him, I don't have the time or the energy! But apparently they had an 'anonymous tip-off'. Who _the hell_ would accuse me of murdering _my own husband_?"

"I, I don't know," Roland said helplessly.

"_I_ do," spat Mrs. Wheeler. "It was that stupid whore of a secretary. Do you know what they asked me? _Do you know_? They asked me, did I kill my husband. They asked me, where was I the night he died. They. Asked. Me." Her face was growing steadily redder - she looked like she might start steaming from her ears. "Was I aware that Michael was having an affair with his _fucking secretary_! Oh please honey, come on, stop crying!" she wailed, jigging the baby around frantically as it increased the volume of its screams. "Well no, I was not aware! I never even suspected! God, I feel so _stupid_!"

"Oh no, Mrs. Wheeler, you're not stupid," Roland said desperately.

"Well I'm aware now, aren't I! And it's perfectly understandable! I've had three children - _his_ children - and I've spent the last five years feeding them and clothing them and driving them to school and picking them up and trying to instil in them a worthy value base, and that does things to a woman's body and it takes up a lot of her time, she can no longer devote her every spare minute to flattering her husband's ego, so of _course _he prefers the company of his anorexic cock-sucking secretary and her tight blouses and her crotchless panties! I _don't_ know why he died, but I am _fucking grateful that he did_!"

The door slammed shut, and the baby's screams became even more vociferous.

"Whoa!" exclaimed Roland.

"She needs help," said Eduardo.

"I'll bet she didn't mean that."

"I hope she did. The dick-hole shouldn't have cheated on her. I mean, why _get_ married in the first place if you're just gonna treat her like _that_?"

Roland shook his head. "I don't know, Eduardo, but if ever anything was none of your business it's this. I guess this means we aren't permitted to take a look around her house, then… but I think we should have a scout around the neighbourhood."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Roland and Eduardo got back to the firehouse Kylie Griffin was there, with the Mood Slime logo stretched across her breasts and her younger daughter Rose sitting on her lap - they were discussing the pictures in a dumbed down edition of _The Ugly Duckling_. They probably both needed to wind down a bit; Kylie had spent most of the morning with a blustery old professor (as she had recently entered into the embryonic stages of her PhD) before going to pick Rose up from preschool. Rose had been in education for a little over a week now, and was not impressed.

"Oh look, Daddy's back," Kylie said brightly.

Rose gave her a withering look as if to say: you are adept at stating the obvious.

"Hello," said Eduardo, going to sit with them. "Did you have a good morning, Rosie?"

"No."

"What did you do?"

"Nothing."

"Standards have obviously slackened since Chita's day," said Kylie. "And after all that trouble we went to choosing." (There had been a few minor arguments over which school their daughters should attend; Kylie believed that the quality of education should be the primary factor in the decision, while Eduardo's main priority seemed to be to send them to a school with no uniform.) "So come on, what have you guys been doing? Janine says you've been trying to find out why that Jackie Thompson person died."

Kylie noticed Roland wincing slightly. It seemed to shock him that a three-year-old girl's parents talked so openly about death in front of their child - but as it happened, this was something Eduardo and Kylie had talked about, and they agreed that they wanted their daughters to be aware of death before it struck anyone they knew. Eduardo, whose father had died when he was eleven, hoped their first experience of death would be their cat Pagan - an inevitable event that he was quietly dreading. He had been expecting Pagan to slip away for a couple of years now. The old cat was sixteen, and might have had another four or five years left in him - but realistically, he probably didn't.

"Egon made us question her husband, and the families of those other two people who died for no apparent reason," said Eduardo. "He says it's definitely something paranormal, but that had nothing to do with what me and Roland did - he got it from Jackie Thompson's body."

"He and Garrett must still be working on that," said Roland.

Kylie raised her eyebrows. "Why Garrett?"

"Egon asked him because of his medical background," said Roland.

"Oh." Kylie looked dubious. "I didn't know physiotherapists preformed post mortems."

"They do now," said Eduardo.

"We _did_ find something," said Roland, producing a small polythene bag from somewhere about his person. "Just a bit of ectoplasmic residue. It was in the street where Michael Wheeler lived. We weren't really expecting to find anything there, but his wife obviously wasn't going to let us search the house so I figured we might as well do the street."

"They made me draw a picture of my family," Rose said suddenly. Her reports of what had gone on at preschool always started with, "They made me".

"Did they, honey?" Eduardo asked interestedly.

"Can I show you?"

"Of course you can."

Rose, clearly bored by all the shop talk, grabbed Eduardo's hand and led him through to the kitchen.

"Her teacher had 'a word' with me about that picture," said Kylie. "She drew Carl four times the size of the rest of us, and purple. Apparently he looks 'threatening', and I 'might want to keep an eye on their relationship'."

"Well," said Roland, "I'd probably see Carl that way if I was the size she is."

At this point they were interrupted by Garrett and Egon's return. They were accompanied by Janine, who must have wanted to hear their news. Garrett wheeled his way into the room looking rather paler than usual, while Egon asked, "Has Peter gone?"

"Seems to have," said Roland.

"He only stayed long enough to order me into this t-shirt," said Kylie. "Then he went off with his cardboard box - he's probably planning on distributing a few more."

"Well," said Egon, helping himself to a vacant armchair, "I was unable to find an exact cause of death, but I'm certain that the entity attacked Mrs. Thompson's hippocampus."

"Remind me," said Janine.

"The part of the brain associated with memory," said Egon, "and that controls basic drives and emotions."

"So… what?" asked Roland. "It's after your memory?"

"Perhaps."

"How does that kill you?"

"I asked that," said Garrett. "He doesn't know."

"No," said Egon, "I don't, because this information is far too sparse to start drawing conclusions. Do you have anything to show me, Roland?"

"Oh," said Roland, handing Egon his polythene bag. "Here."

"Thank you," said Egon. "Did you learn anything from any of the families?"

"Only that Jackie Thompson and Deepa Khan both died in their sleep," said Roland. "Mrs. Wheeler didn't tell us what happened to her husband - only that she found out afterward he was having an affair with his secretary."

"Dick," said Kylie, getting to her feet. "Well, I guess I'll hit the books."

"And I'll start analysing this sample," said Egon. "You've seen it, Kylie?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," said Kylie, cutting a quick glance at the small bag of ectoplasm. "It's dark, isn't it?"

"Yes, it's very dark."

"I've never seen ectoplasm that dark."

"Well, I daresay I have at one time or another, but nothing springs to mind. Roland and Garrett, I'd like you to have a look through the database. Remember: it seems to prefer night time attacks, and does _something_ with or to the hippocampus."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Janine offered to pick up Eduardo and Kylie's older daughter, Conchita, from school when she went to collect her own two children. Eduardo was grateful for this - he was the only person supervising Rose, and she seemed in no mood to cooperate with anyone or anything. She really resented her parents making her go to school, and her father sympathised with this absolutely. "It's the law" had never satisfied him as a child, and he was loathe to the say the same thing now to his own daughter.

"Why isn't she wearing the hat?"

Eduardo looked up in surprise - he hadn't even heard Peter come in. He was on the floor, with Rose sitting between his legs, and they were attempting to alphabetise some animal finger puppets. It was a cute toy, consisting of the twenty-six finger puppets and a caterpillar with the same number of segments on its body, each bearing a letter of the alphabet. Each of the puppets belonged in a little pocket on the caterpillar's segments - the cat went into C, and so forth. Eduardo had been dubious when Rose said she wanted to play with it. She'd watched her sister complete the task a number of times, but Eduardo thought it was probably too advanced for his younger child. He quickly realised, however, that he should have had more faith in her. With him naming each animal and emphasising the first letter, she was managing to hold her own pretty well.

"Oh, I forgot about that," said Eduardo, in response to Peter's question.

Peter shook his head despairingly. "You forgot…"

"Look, I don't think a three year old in a hat is going to do much to boost record sales."

"Yeah, well, maybe you're right." Peter sat down on the floor, and picked up a finger puppet at random. "How come there's two rabbits?"

"That's a gofer," Rose said scornfully.

"Oh, sorry. So… what's going on with that Jackie Whatshername?"

"Investigating," said Eduardo.

"Still?"

"Yeah. And I'm being paid to sit here and play with my own daughter - it's great. What's that, Rosie?" as Rose stretched out her left hand for another puppet.

She frowned at her choice for a moment, and then said indignantly, "It's a dead fish!"

Peter burst out laughing.

"What am I supposed to do with it?" wailed Rose.

"I don't know, honey" said Eduardo, looking slightly panicky at the prospect of a tantrum. "Where does Chita put it?"

"_I _don't know!"

"Why don't you do all the others and see what's left over?" suggested Peter.

"Oh, Kylie, thank God!" said Eduardo, as Kylie wandered into the room clutching an antiquated hardback in her arms. "What are we supposed to do with this one?"

"It's a dead fish," added Peter.

Kylie looked at the finger puppet depicting a skeletal fish, and then said simply, "It's an x-ray, honey. X."

"O-oh!" Eduardo and Rose said in unison.

"Is that the best they could do?" Peter said disdainfully.

"Now come on, listen, this is important," said Kylie, getting down onto the floor with them. "We think we've found our demon. There," and she opened the book on the floor.

" 'Secernerus,'" Peter read, with some difficulty - it was a bit of a mouthful. "Oh, there's a picture - that'll help us spot him."

"If you read the caption," said Kylie, "you'll see that the picture was probably down to guesswork. Apparently people who've seen it don't generally live to give artist's renditions. And anyway, you _can't_ really see it - it's in the shadows."

"Really?" Peter cocked his head to one side. "I thought it _was_ the shadows."

"Snail," said Eduardo. "Sssssnail… good girl! So come on, Kylie - what does it do?"

"It feeds on secrets."

"_D_og… _bien, querida_. Secrets? How does _that_ work?"

"Well we don't _know _how, do we - it's a demon," said Kylie. "But it all fits. The hippocampus - memory, drives and emotions - and that guy _was_ having an affair."

Eduardo nodded. "And she definitely didn't know."

"How big do these secrets have to be?" asked Peter.

"I don't know," said Kylie. "If you've got _little_ secrets, Dr. Venkman, it might be an idea to get them off your chest. See, we _can_ safeguard ourselves against this thing."

"By confessing all of our secrets, you mean?" said Peter.

"Yes."

"To whom?"

"Well, I don't imagine it'll do any good just stopping someone in the street and telling them your deepest darkest secrets," said Kylie. "They're not gonna care. You need to tell the person or people you _really_ don't want to find out."

"Right," said Peter. "Ok. Do you know, I can't think of anything off the top of my head - but we'll all want to tell our friends and families about this, of course."

"Of course," said Kylie. "Roland and Garrett know, and Egon's downstairs calling Ray and Winston - oh, no he's not, he's here. We're all up to speed now, I take it?"

"We are," said Egon. He wandered over to the group and chose to perch on the edge of the sofa, rather than getting on the floor with them. "Charlene asked to speak to me when I called Winston - it sounded like she'd just that minute got home. Winston told her and Kaila about the demon, and then Charlene had a very interesting question for me. She wanted to know if you're in danger if you're keeping a secret for somebody else."

"And are you?" asked Peter.

"I honestly don't know. My guess would be not, but it's a demon, we just can't tell. I advised her to try and persuade the person whose secret she's keeping to confess - then it just wouldn't be an issue. Or, if that person refuses, she _could_ betray his or her confidence. I didn't like advising her to do that, but if her life is in danger…"

"We still don't know the answer to our earlier question, do we?" said Kylie. "_How_ does it kill you? I mean, secrets… they're not exactly vital organs, are they?"

"No," said Egon, "but they're a big part of who we are, and people will go to extremes to try and keep hold of them."

"I'd better get home," said Peter, jumping to his feet. "Jess'll be getting home from school about now - I don't want her at home alone with a demon on the loose."

"Do you think _she_ has any secrets?" asked Kylie.

"I am sure," Peter said slowly, "that she doesn't tell me everything. I'll see you guys tomorrow or something," and he left very speedily.

"Speaking of coming home from school," said Kylie, "is someone picking up Chita?"

"Yeah, Janine is," said Eduardo. "Hey, look at that, Rosie - you did it!"

"Well done, honey," added Kylie, looking up and noticing that Egon was making a discreet exit. "So, Eddie… anything you want to tell me?"

"I can't think of anything _you _don't know about," said Eduardo. "But I may call Carlos later and tell him about one or two things I smoked in his guest room a few years back."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Jessica was curled up on the sofa with a book, her feet bare and the Mood Slime logo on her chest obscured by her knees.

"Hi, honey," said Peter, going to drop a kiss on her forehead. "What are you reading?"

"The Bible," said Jessica.

Peter blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah. I don't believe a word of it, but as a piece of history it's actually really interesting. How come you're home early?"

"Well," said Peter, sitting down next to her, "there's something we need to start letting people know about."

When Peter had finished telling Jessica about Secernerus (he had made a special effort to remember its name), she just sat there in catatonic silence.

"Jess?" Peter said tentatively.

"Mmm?"

"You know you can tell me anything, don't you?"

"Yeah, sure," Jessica said distractedly, uncurling herself and getting to her feet. "I'll just run across the street and tell Cameron."

"Cameron," muttered Peter. He had really thought that Jessica's relationship with the boy next door - or rather, the cambion across the street - had been looking less enthusiastic than once it had been, but it still didn't seem to have been officially ended yet.

While Jessica was gone, Peter could do nothing but worry. He glanced down at the Bible she had been reading, open on _Exodus_. Honestly, fourteen and she already had a secret. There _was_ a secret, he could just tell - and she didn't feel that she could tell him, even now that it might be endangering her life. Peter couldn't help wondering why. Wasn't he approachable and understanding? He had always done his utmost to let his children know that they could go to him with any problems they might have, and that if they made a mistake he wouldn't judge. So what could it be? What could possibly be _that_ bad?

Jessica was quiet for the rest of the evening. She took a very long shower after returning from Cameron's house, and then stayed in her bedroom until dinnertime. She was up there when her mother came home and was warned about the secret-eating demon.

"Have you told Jessica?" asked Dana.

"Yes."

"And?"

"She didn't tell me anything."

"Right," said Dana. "Well… as it happens I _do_ have a secret, and I suppose I should have told you anyway, really. Just… don't get mad, ok?"

"Well, don't give me a reason to get mad," retorted Peter.

She took a deep breath. "When Oscar and I were living in LA, and you were in New York… I two-timed you for a couple of months."

"_What_? When?"

"It wasn't anything serious," Dana said hastily. "It was only nine weeks in the fall, just before you showed up. I mean, things were getting a bit… weren't they, between you and me, and I was worried about Oscar growing up without a father, and this flautist from - "

"What the hell is a _flautist_?"

"Someone who plays the flute - he was in the orchestra. He asked me out, and I thought, sure, why the hell not?"

"Why the hell not?" echoed Peter. "_Why the hell not_? _I'm_ why the hell not!"

"Peter, calm down!" Dana said desperately. "It was only nine weeks. He wasn't all that great, really, and Oscar didn't like him so I - "

"Of course Oscar didn't like him - Oscar liked _me_. Why did _he_ never tell me this?"

"He was three, Peter - he probably doesn't even remember."

"Well," muttered Peter.

"I'm sorry."

"What was his name?"

"Derek."

"Did you sleep with him?"

"No."

"Did you _want_ to sleep with him?"

"No. I wanted to sleep with _you_, but you weren't there."

"Right," said Peter. "Well. I, um, didn't choose your engagement ring - the girl at the store said you'd like it. I don't know how she knew, but you did - like it, I mean - so I guess that's ok. And a couple of times when I was flying over to see you, I might have flirted a little bit with some stewardesses. And right before you dumped me the first time we were going out, I kissed a girl who tried to pick me up in the park."

"_What_?" cried Dana. "Oh… there, see, I knew breaking up with you was the right thing to do. Anything else?"

"No."

"I'll start dinner, then."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

All of the Ghostbusters' immediate family were told about the demon that very night, and so was Grace. However her ex-husband, Spencer Daniels, was overlooked until the following morning, when Garrett happened to see him at the gym. They had been friends in high school, and only recently regained touch after about ten years, during which time Spencer had reformed himself since falling in with a group of bigots.

"You're quiet," said Garrett, once he had told Spencer about Secernerus over a power bar and a tasteless energy drink. "I can't imagine that _you_ have any secrets, Spence, seeing as you were brave enough to tell your black girlfriend about your shady past."

"I'm not brave," Spencer said quietly. "Yeah, I told Grace, and I told my parents and my now girlfriend knows as well. But I haven't told everyone."

"Well then who…? Oh."

"Natalie."

"Yeah, I thought so."

"I can't tell her that," said Spencer.

"Well, Spence… would you rather die?" asked Garrett.

"Well, no, I suppose not. I mean, if you put a gun to my head and told me that you'd shoot if I didn't call and tell her, I'd probably do it. But the threat isn't very _immediate_, is it? I mean, you know I believe absolutely in demons since the Golem, but…"

"I get it," Garrett said reassuringly. "You can't _see_ any danger, so trying to get rid of it doesn't seem worth all the stress you'd have to go through - it's like smoking."

"That's a good analogy," Spencer smiled wryly. "I know it's cowardly, but how can I tell her? How can I tell my mixed race seven-year-old girl _that_? I mean, hell, I wouldn't want to tell her even if she was white - it was such a shitty thing I did, you know how ashamed I am." He paused. "When Nat was born, I thought I should tell her someday, because otherwise it's like I'm lying to her. But she's still so young."

"She's old enough to understand, Spence."

"I know she is. But when I think about telling her, I feel like… like all the walls are closing in, or something. But this demon… I mean, there are millions of people in New York, and I bet _most_ of them have got secrets…"

"It's up to you, Spence," Garrett said unhelpfully.

"I know." Spencer exhaled heavily. "I guess I don't have to decide right now. _If_ I tell her, it'll be when I've got her on Saturday. She's staying the night while Grace goes out with Roland."

"Yeah?" asked Garrett. "Roland never said."

"Well I'm not surprised - it sounds like it's gonna be a complete disaster. Grace says he's coming with her to drop Natalie off, and I have to ask them all in for coffee."

"Ooh." Garrett winced. "Well, when you're making Roland coffee, maybe don't say, 'Black or white?'"

Spencer laughed, but still looked terrified. "She really wants him to forgive me."

"I don't know why he doesn't," said Garrett, "but then I've never experienced racism."

"I don't know what to do about him, Garrett. To be perfectly honest with you, I expected him to be gone by now - Grace never manages to keep a man for more than a few weeks. I guess he's not put off by baggage."

"Well, he likes kids. And he likes Natalie. And he's been single a _long_ time."

"I really want Grace to be happy," said Spencer. "She's a really lovely person. It's not fair that I've been seeing Stephanie for three years and she can't keep a guy three weeks. It's easier for me because I only see Natalie two or three times a week - I don't have to organise my whole life around her. Even my being a part-time dad was a problem for _some_ potential girlfriends, and Grace has her almost all the time."

"Roland's a good guy," said Garrett. "He's not going anywhere."

"Clearly," said Spencer. "But I'm making problems for them, aren't I?"

"Well… yeah, like Yoko Ono made problems for the Beatles. You're in the middle, but it's really down to them."

"Grace is just so incredibly _moral_," Spencer went on. "She guided me through this whole process of self-realisation and improvement just because she could see I was finding life hard. And she is _not _gonna be happy until Roland forgives me."

"Well," said Garrett, "whatever else happens on Saturday, you can at least show Roland what you're really like. He doesn't actually know you - he only knows what you did."

"That's more or less what Grace said."

"She sounds a bit pushy to me."

"She is, but so what? She has plenty of good points, and I wouldn't like her half as much if she was perfect. I suppose Roland warned her about this demon? Not that I imagine she has many secrets, but you just never can tell."

"Yeah, he would've told her," said Garrett.

"So… are you going to deal with it today?" asked Spencer.

"It'd be good if we could get rid of it before Saturday, huh? Well, we're gonna try. I mean, we have absolutely no idea where to find it, but we'll do our best."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When Garrett arrived at the firehouse, Janine was punching a number into the phone at reception and not looking happy about it.

"Egon's got me calling all the news channels and papers asking them to put out a warning for people to confess their secrets," she complained, before Garrett had said anything.

"That sounds like a pretty good idea to me," he said.

"Yeah, except that none of them are taking me - Good morning, my name's Janine Spengler - I'm calling on behalf of the Ghostbusters…"

Apparently emotions were running high in the firehouse that morning. When Garrett rolled his way out of the elevator and into the rec room, he caught the tail end of an argument between Roland and Peter.

"…sounds to me like she's discovered she can have a fulfilling sexual relationship without breaking any laws or risking pregnancy," Peter was saying indignantly.

"It _almost_ sounds like you want me to be _grateful_," retorted Roland.

"Well, given that your other sister is single and eight months pregnant, maybe you - "

"Guys, c'mon, play nice," said Garrett. "Can I take it AJ's confessed to getting to third base with Oscar?"

"No," said Roland, "she hasn't. But I know she did _something_ with him."

"How can you _possibly_ know?" Peter demanded hotly.

"I distinctly got that impression."

"Well I am _telling_ you, they never had sex, so I hardly see that it matters."

"Of course it matters! She wasn't even seventeen when they broke - "

"Ro," said Garrett. "You might want to get her to tell you - there's a very nasty demon out there, don't forget, and I'll bet he just _loves_ teenage girls."

"Yeah, I'll bet he does," Peter said distantly.

"Tara will know," Roland said suddenly, whipping out his cell phone. "I'm going to call her. Excuse me…" and he wandered into the kitchen.

"Isn't it weird," said Garrett, "how some people have secrets _so bad_ that they won't tell people even if their lives could be in danger."

"I'd call it alarming," said Peter.

Garrett gave him a scrutinising look. "Yeah, you _do_ look alarmed. What's up?"

"Jess. There's definitely _something_. Y'know, I really thought she understood that she could come to me with stuff, but there's something she doesn't feel she can tell me."

"You could do what Roland's doing - call everyone you know and interrogate them."

Peter shook his head sadly. "I'm not gonna do that. I'm more worried than curious, to be perfectly honest with you - I like to think I respect my kids' privacy. As long as she's ok _now_, I don't need to know."

"I wish _my_ parents were like you," Garrett said, apparently awestruck.

"I hope Dana doesn't catch on - she'll be like Roland."

"I was saying to my friend Spence," said Garrett, "it's like smoking: you can't _see_ the danger so you don't put yourself through dealing with it."

"Does he have a secret he won't confess?"

"Yes. Are you up to speed with the whole Spence-Grace-Roland-Natalie thing?"

"Well, no, not really," said Peter. "I've picked up bits of it. Spence was one of the people who awakened the Golem by vandalising that synagogue, wasn't he?"

"Yes," said Garrett. "And he's Grace's ex."

"Grace being Roland's girlfriend."

"In a very loose sense of the word, yes."

"So he's Grace's kid's father?"

"Yes."

"What a coincidence," said Peter, just as Roland wandered back into the room. "So did your sister have any enlightening information about my son's sexual preferences?"

"She said that Amy said they never had sex," said Roland.

Peter scowled. "_I_ told you that."

"Yeah, but _you_ heard it from Oscar."

"He wouldn't lie to me about that."

"He's a teenage boy."

"Now look - "

"Guys," said Garrett. "Stop. If we're all going to carry on like this, I can see that demon causing no end of problems."

"Secrets cause nothing but trouble," Roland said darkly.

"We're all entitled to our secrets, Roland," Peter said sagely. "I'd never dream of asking anyone to tell me anything they didn't want to if it wasn't for this demon. Speaking of which, what are we sitting around here for? All three of us know someone who might be in danger - we should be dealing with it."

"Egon went out with Kylie before you got here," said Roland. (Eduardo wasn't working that morning - he and Kylie did a lot of separate shifts, because they both appreciated the importance of spending time apart.) "They're scouting around the attack sites, trying to pick up clues where it might be now. When you arrived I was doing some research." He gestured to a pile of open books on the table. "But I… wasn't really concentrating. So anyway, who do you two know who might be in danger?"

"Jess," said Peter.

"I'm not telling you," said Garrett, knowing that Roland would probably have a lot of unfavourable things to say about Spencer's cowardly lack of honesty with his own child.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was a few hours before Kylie and Egon got in touch, requesting that one or two other Ghostbusters go and meet them at a certain disused building in Times Square.

"Oh look, you're _all_ here," said Egon, once he and Kylie had been joined by Roland, Garrett and Peter in what had apparently been some kind of bar within the last two or three years. "Well, revisiting the victims' families proved useful. We interviewed them again, and asked them to tell us _everything_ that happened in the twenty-four hours before each person died."

"Mrs. Wheeler yelled at us and said she didn't know _what_ the hell he'd been doing," Kylie took over. "But she didn't mind giving us the number of his office, and we asked his secretary what he'd been doing, and she said he brought her to a club somewhere round here on the same night he died."

"Jackie Thompson had been here two days before she died," said Egon. "Deepa Khan hadn't, but we couldn't discount it just because of her - and Kylie told me that in the book she found, it says Secernerus likes places with a lot of darkness and a lot of people. That gives it a lot of options in New York, of course, but since we had the information about this area we thought it would be pertinent to start here."

"And we managed to track it to this place," Kylie surmised. "It's in here somewhere."

"So you're in slightly less danger," said Peter, "if you haven't been to Times Square recently?"

"Perhaps," said Egon, "but we really can't rely on that."

"Well, no - let's just trap the demon," said Peter, and began following the lead of his PKE meter, which took him through to the kitchen.

"It's nocturnal," said Kylie, drawing up alongside him. "I guess it sleeps in one of these cupboards or something during the day and then goes out at night to eat."

"Well," said Garrett, who had already crossed the room, PKE meter humming, "I think I've found its cupboard, but I can't quite reach it - can someone give me a hand?"

Roland, forcing himself to stop wondering about his sister's secret, went and pulled open the very wide wooden cupboard that was quite a few inches above Garrett's head. Both of their PKE meters were humming excitedly, but they couldn't actually see any demon.

"I don't see any demon," said Roland.

Kylie strode over to the cupboard and craned her neck, trying to see inside.

"Short-ass," muttered Garrett.

"I think it's _that_," said Kylie, pointing towards an unusually dark shadow stretching across the back of the cupboard. "I mean, look at it - it's quite light in here, there's no way the shadows should be _that_ dark in a cupboard this size."

"It's not doing anything," complained Garrett.

"So," said Peter, from the other side of the room, "why not try shooting it?"

"Well," said Garrett, "I'm just not convinced it's - "

"Our PKE meters are saying it is," said Kylie. "Come on - on three."

"Three," they all said, a little half-heartedly - this was hardly a frantic battle with a huge and terrifying threat, and none of them felt quite in the mood to shout. The three younger Ghostbusters turned their proton streams onto the slightly erroneous looking shadow, but only succeeded in totally splintering the cupboard.

"The reading's moved," said Roland.

"It's behind me," said Peter, turning round sharply and backing away from another cupboard, this one on a level with his shins. "Wow - this thing can move."

Egon marched across the room and pulled open the cupboard. There was another slightly-too-dark shadow in there, but it seemed to melt away as soon as Egon spotted it.

"Hmm… this may prove tricky," he said.

With no better ideas, the five Ghostbusters spent a good twenty minutes chasing the demon around the kitchen. Once all the cupboards had been destroyed, it managed to get itself into the bar without anybody seeing it go. It then found its way into the gents', which seemed to have been used more recently than it had been cleaned, and promptly disappeared down a severely stained urinal and into the sewage system.

"Now that," said Peter, "is _not _fair."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was mid-afternoon by the time they arrived back at the firehouse. Until that point Peter had been glad to have had the luck to avoid Slimer, but sadly it was not to last. He was being licked affectionately within a second of stepping out of the Ecto-1.

"Be nice to him, Dr. Venkman," said Janine. "He's upset because Jessica told him to do something I'd rather not repeat."

"She's here?" asked Peter.

"Yes. Winston's been chasing her."

When Peter finally managed to persuade Slimer to move away from him, he saw that Winston Zeddemore was there too.

"Charlene wanted to talk to Jess after school," he began to explain, in response to Peter's quizzical look. "She was cagey about why - but Jessica sneaked off, so Charlene made me drive to your place but no one was there, so we tried here and we found her."

"Right," Peter said slowly. "I see. Where are they?"

"Upstairs somewhere."

Once Peter had ascended the stairs to the next floor he had no trouble locating Charlene and Jessica, as their raised voices were emanating from the kitchen with perfect clarity.

"Nothing is going to happen to you!" Jessica was yelling, with a distinct note of desperation in her voice. "It is _my_ secret! It's not gonna take it from _you_!"

"You don't know that!" wailed Charlene.

"Charlene, I am warning you now, if you tell anyone…"

"But Jess, aren't you worried about _yourself_? Look… it's not really _that_ bad. I mean, it's been two years now, and you never actually - AAAAAHHH!"

Charlene shrieked as Jessica, noticing her father standing in the doorway, kicked her very hard in the shin. Charlene staggered, clutched the table for support and then whipped round to look at Peter. He saw at once that there were tears in her eyes.

"Jessica!" exclaimed Peter.

Jessica stared at him for a moment, then tore her gaze away and barged past him, hiding behind her hair as she hurried out of the room. There followed a babble of excitement, and then Jessica's voice exclaiming, "Slimer, I thought I told you to go fuck yourself!" Peter winced, wondering if she'd picked that up from him.

"Are you all right, Charlene?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah, sure," Charlene said acidly. "It's only my leg - I've got another one."

"I'm sorry," said Peter, before turning to follow Jessica.

Somewhat like Secernerus, she was fast, and he had absolutely no idea where she had gone. Peter scoured the whole firehouse looking for his daughter and eventually found her in the basement, just sitting on the steps and staring at nothing.

"Jess, is it really so bad you can't tell me?" he asked gently.

Jessica swivelled round at the waist and stared up at him; it pained him to see that there were tears in her eyes. She didn't answer the question. She only said, "Why haven't you caught it yet? Janine said you'd been gone since this morning."

"Well it sort of gave us the slip," Peter said awkwardly.

"Tchuh." She turned herself back the right way round. "Call yourselves Ghostbusters…"

"Don't worry, honey, we'll catch it. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."

"This _sucks_!" Jessica complained loudly, suddenly rising to her feet and turning round in one fluid motion. "It's lousy to steal people's secrets. Secrets are a basic human right."

"Yeah, well, so are a lot of things that demons feed on," said Peter. "You know - life force, body fluids, blood… What's up?"

"What?"

"You looked weird when I said blood."

"No I didn't."

"You've been crying."

"Yeah, well, so what?" Jessica said defensively.

"So you must be upset," said Peter.

"I'm not upset."

"But you - "

"I'm all right now, it's no big deal. Look, this demon… if it's so slippery, how do you intend to deal with it? I suppose you've all confessed your secrets, haven't you?"

"I think so," said Peter.

"Well then," Jessica went on, "it's not interested in you, is it? It has no reason to come within a hundred yards of any of you. You know what you need?"

"Um." Peter couldn't help feeling that he _should_ know - he was the Ghostbuster here, after all. "No."

"Bait."

"Bait? You mean someone with a secret?"

"Duh."

"I hope you're not volunteering."

"Well, why the hell not?" Jessica said reasonably. "If you were there ready to trap it, I wouldn't be in any danger - I trust you."

Peter raised his eyebrows. "Do you?"

"Oh, Dad," Jessica sighed heavily. "I love you, but I can't be expected to tell you everything. Do you tell _me_ everything?"

"Well… no, I suppose not. But it's not your having a secret that I mind, Jess, it's the fact that it might kill you."

"It won't kill me if you deal with the demon."

"Well… no," Peter had to concede. "No, I suppose it won't."

"And you _do_ need to deal with it, Dad," Jessica said sagely. "I'm not the only person in danger, because I am by no means the only person in New York with a secret."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Eduardo worked the graveyard shift that night, along with Ray Stantz and Winston, who strictly speaking was supposed to have gone straight home to sleep after picking his daughter up from school. Once again, Secernerus proved extremely difficult to track down. It seemed to have abandoned its squat in Times Square now that it knew it had been discovered; the three Ghostbusters were attempting to follow the lukewarm trail for hours before finally agreeing that they were tired, they were getting nowhere and the damn thing had had time to eat the secrets out of as many people as it wanted to.

When he got home, Eduardo had expected to find that Kylie was asleep and had warmed the bed up nicely for him. Instead, he found her sitting on the sofa with her feet tucked under her, highlighting words in a hefty looking textbook.

"You're not _still_ doing that!" he said, horrified.

"What do you mean, _still_?" said Kylie. "I know I said I was gonna do this for a few hours after you left, but I… I ended up trying to find out a bit more about Secernerus."

Eduardo sighed heavily. Honestly, she worked much too hard. "And did you?"

"No," said Kylie, shifting over slightly as he sat down beside her. "I had a look through all of my books, but there are limited resources here, and there just wasn't anything. I tried the internet too, but that didn't have anything and even if it did it would have been crap anyway. It was nice when I could just scoot off to the library whenever I wanted to" - she glanced quickly towards her daughters' shared bedroom - "but there it is."

"Ky," said Eduardo. "You still need to sleep."

"So did you find it?" she asked.

"No."

"I didn't think you would. It's not like other entities. People don't see it and think: oh, there's a demon, I'll call the Ghostbusters and tell them where to go. Y'know, I mean… you can't even really see it, and then it kills you."

Eduardo sighed. "Somebody will have died tonight."

"Maybe not," said Kylie. "I mean, it's only had three victims in well over two weeks."

"That we know of."

"Maybe it just… doesn't need to eat that often."

"Maybe it depends on the magnitude of the secret."

"That's an interesting idea." She put her book down, and leaned her head against his shoulder. "Neither of us'll want to get up and do the school run tomorrow. I should have gone to bed."

"Yeah, I know you should."

"Well I don't feel tired," Kylie said shortly. "Do you?"

"Well," said Eduardo, "yeah, kinda."

Kylie wrapped her arms around him and started kissing his neck, saying, "Are you quite sure about that?"

He wondered how she had the energy, but he didn't argue. It hadn't been that long since they'd made love, but Eduardo thought it was probably longer than if she hadn't taken on an extra commitment. For a while it had looked like Kylie wouldn't have enough capital to go ahead with the PhD, but then her grandfather had died and come through with some inheritance at the last minute. Once she knew it was going ahead, Kylie had been happy, but she had also expressed some concern about the test her time management skills were going to face over the next three years. Eduardo had felt quietly smug about his ability to say the right thing: he would be incredibly supportive, and he'd take on as much of Kylie's share of domestic and parenting duties as she needed him to. And in return for all of this, she had promised that he would not fall to the bottom of the priorities list.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Jessica wasn't sleeping that night either. She spent hours just lying in bed with her eyes screwed defiantly shut, but always remained very much awake. She turned over several times. She sat up, punched the life out of her pillows and lay down again. Then she felt some pressure on her bladder, went and dealt with it and got back into bed. She lay on her back, staring through the darkness at the ceiling. She even tried to make herself relax with some gentle masturbation. She hadn't completely figured that out yet, but she'd discovered enough to find it an enjoyable way of passing the time. This time, however, she wasn't feeling anything good - she only began to feel agitated. So eventually Jessica had to concede that she wouldn't get to sleep as long as she knew there was a danger that she might never wake up again.

She swung her legs onto the floor, sat up and switched on the lamp beside her bed. She began to imagine herself telling her secret to her father, face to face, and knew at once that she would never be brave enough to do it. But there were other ways of letting him know. Jessica stood up and crossed the room to her desk. She sat down, switched on the desk lamp, picked up a pen and a scrap of paper and began to write:

_Dad, you probably remember that vampire in the school basement about two years ago. Well, he and I had a little thing going. His name was Will, and he told me a lot of lies about how he had to live on rats and he was so miserable and I was the only person who could make him happy etc. He was very charming, and I am ashamed to say that I was stupid enough to fall for it. You thought you'd killed him. I should have told you straightaway that you hadn't, but I really wanted to believe him so I let it carry on. He tried to bite me a couple of times - I know he wanted to turn me into one of them. Quite honestly, I'm lucky to be alive. He kissed me twice, and I sort of liked it. I'm sorry._

Jessica stared at the scrap of paper, not looking at what she had written. It would be small trouble for her just to slip this under her parents' bedroom door and then sneak off early for school the next morning. Then by the time she got home in the afternoon, they would know, and there would be nothing she could do about it.

When she read the note again, Jessica realised that she seemed only to be addressing Peter. She didn't want her mother to know about Will either, but quite honestly she cared more about what her father thought. Dana hadn't featured in her imagined confession either, Jessica now remembered. She sighed heavily, tore the paper into as many small pieces as she could and dropped them into the bin underneath her desk. Then she went back to bed and began to think about Will.

Like before, in the firehouse basement, the memory of him brought tears to her eyes. She had been only twelve at the time - she really hadn't appreciated how charming he was, how handsome, how damn _sexy_. Before she realised how stupid she had been to let him dupe her, Jessica had even felt a little scared by the way he made her feel. But now… well, she wouldn't mind having a chance to feel that way again.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The next morning, Jessica answered the door to her boyfriend within minutes of dragging herself out of bed. She'd stayed there all night, bar another trip to the bathroom, but hadn't slept a wink.

"You want a ride to school?" Cameron asked, cocking his head towards the motorcycle parked outside his house across the street.

"I'd rather walk," Jessica said bluntly. "All you and I ever do nowadays is ride around on that stupid motorcycle."

Cameron looked scandalised. "I thought you liked it!"

"I do, now and then - but I'm supposed to be dating _you_, not the motorcycle."

"Jess, you _are_ dating me."

"Am I?" she said. "I haven't seen you without that thing since you passed your test. It's ok, but it's not _that_ impressive - don't you have anything of your own to excite me with?"

"Like what?" Cameron asked guardedly.

"Like anything! We were just getting the hang of kissing, if you recall, but since you got your bike licence you've hardly touched me."

"Yeah, well, I'm half incubus - I don't want you fainting on me again."

"You're not a boyfriend - you're a taxi service," Jessica said acidly.

The argument continued for a little while longer, and quickly roused Peter from sleep. Jessica didn't even turn round when he padded quietly down the stairs directly behind her. He went to the kitchen, and found Dana straining to listen.

"I think," whispered Dana, "she's making him choose between her and his motorcycle."

"I hope he chooses the motorcycle," said Peter.

"That's cruel."

"He turns seventeen in a couple of months - she's _much_ too young. And it must freak you out when she goes off with him on the back of that thing - he could kill her."

"Oh God yes," said Dana. "Oh - hi, honey."

"You will be delighted to know," Jessica said sleepily, sitting down at the kitchen table, "that I have dumped Cameron."

"Aw, too bad," Peter said breezily. "Do you want a lift to school? I'm going to drive to the firehouse and see what the situation with that demon is. If they didn't manage to find it last night, I may run the bait idea past everyone - we could always use somebody else."

Dana looked up. "Somebody else besides…?"

"Amy Jackson," Peter said quickly. "Honestly, the grilling I got from Roland on the basis that Oscar _might_ just possibly have 'done something' with her…"

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When he arrived at the firehouse, after dropping Jessica off and watching her practically sleepwalk her way into school, Peter found Janine having just ended a phone call and looking extremely upset.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Someone else died last night."

"Oh."

"Someone we know."

"Who?" Peter asked anxiously.

Janine raised her eyes to his face. "_You_ don't know her, really. I'm going to have to call Eduardo. You fetch Egon and Roland while I'm doing that - they're the only ones here."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The young woman who answered the door was red-eyed, damp-cheeked and obviously disappointed to see Roland, Egon and Peter on her doorstep.

"Hi, Wanda," Roland ventured timidly.

"I hoped you'd be Celine," said Wanda. "Stupid, really - I only called her half an hour ago, it'll be ages yet before she arrives. I suppose you'd better come in."

"We're very sorry for your loss," said Roland.

"Ha!" Wanda exclaimed. "From what that secretary person said, it sounds like you've been looking for whatever it is that killed her already - couldn't you have stopped it by now? How useless _are_ you?"

"We've been trying," said Roland.

"And," said Egon, "we don't know it's what killed her."

"Where is she?" asked Peter.

"In her room," and Wanda began to lead them through the apartment. "I walked in here and she was dead, just like that. God knows why I called _you_ people first. I only thought: well, it must be some kind of demon or something - why else would a healthy woman in her twenties just _die_ like that? I can't believe I called you before her parents - oh my God, I'm such an idiot. I called them next, and then Celine - I haven't called anyone else. Who _the hell_ are you supposed to call when your roommate just _dies _for no reason?"

Wanda stopped abruptly, suddenly seeming to realise that she was in her dead friend's bedroom, and staring at her body. Roland stared too. It was years since he'd seen Bess - Eduardo had broken up with her shortly before getting together with Kylie a little over nine years ago. She really did look like she was asleep, as though a slight shake would wake her up. Wanda had probably gone over and shaken her before she realised Bess was dead - it was just horrible to think of.

"Come on," said Roland, taking Wanda's arm and leading her gently out of the room.

"What did it?" Wanda asked frantically, shaking his hand away. "What killed her?"

"It was probably a demon called Secernerus," said Roland. "It kills people by feeding on their secrets."

"Secrets?" echoed Wanda, sounding utterly perplexed. Then suddenly her expression darkened; her eyes seemed to flash and she exclaimed heatedly, "SECRETS?"

A car pulled up on the street outside; Roland and Wanda both looked instinctively towards the window. Wanda then marched over to it, closely followed by Roland, and when they looked down they saw Eduardo and Kylie climbing sedately out of a cab.

Wanda had gone almost before Roland saw her move. He went after her, following her down the three flights of stairs that led to the ground floor of the apartment block. She reached the bottom just as Eduardo entered the lobby. Eyes blazing, Wanda marched over to him and punched him hard in the mouth.

"THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" she screamed.

"Hey, hey, calm down!" cried Roland, grabbing Wanda's arms just as Kylie stepped in between her and Eduardo. "Of course it's not - "

"Shut the fuck up!" yelled Wanda. "Get your hands off me! You… you… you never even wanted her, did you, not really! You ruined her life, and now…"

"I'm sorry," Eduardo said desperately, ignoring the blood that was pooling on his lip.

"Sorry?" shrieked Wanda. "_Sorry_? Sorry doesn't cut it! She's dead, you asshole - she is _dead_! AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"Wanda, stop it," Kylie said sternly. "How can this possibly be his fault?"

"Get your hands off me!" Wanda said again, struggling free of Roland's grip.

"I think I know," said Eduardo, and he looked questioningly at Wanda. "The abortion?"

Wanda looked momentarily taken aback. "You knew?"

"I didn't know it was mine."

"I told her to tell you!" Wanda yelled frantically, tears streaming down her face now. "But she wouldn't! Do you know what she said? She said you wouldn't wanna know! You loved somebody else, and it would be easier on everyone if she just got rid of it! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HER TO MAKE HER THINK THAT?"

Wanda just wept openly for several seconds, and then lunged for Eduardo again. He took a reflexive step back; Kylie and Roland both grabbed onto Wanda at the same time and yelled, "Calm down!"

"You're gonna pay for this," sobbed Wanda, not bothering to struggle this time - she clearly didn't have the energy. "I'll make you sorry you ever went near her."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Garrett was working his other job as a hospital physiotherapist that morning. Neither Kylie nor Eduardo was supposed to be working this shift, but he wanted to go to the firehouse and start dealing with Secernerus, and she insisted on going too. When they got there, however, Eduardo had to disappear for a few minutes, and Kylie went after him. Egon, Peter, Roland and Janine all waited for them in the rec room. They were silent for a while, until it occurred to Peter to tell Janine what they had learnt from Wanda.

"I think," said Roland, once Janine had been brought up to speed on the morning's events, "Eduardo could afford to be a lot more careful."

Peter looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"Well, Conchita was an accident too, wasn't she?"

"Roland," said Peter, "you can be as careful as humanly possible, but accidents happen. I mean, Jess wasn't exactly _planned_."

"Twice seems _very_ unlucky, though," Roland said obstinately.

"You're assuming Rose was planned," said Peter, though he had no idea _why_ he said it.

"She was," Janine said shortly. Then, as Eduardo and Kylie sloped into the room, "Oh, there you are. How are you doing, Eduardo?"

"Fine," said Eduardo, perching on an arm of the sofa. "What are we gonna do now?"

"Well," said Peter, "Jessica had an interesting idea about using bait."

"Bait?" echoed Egon, and he looked suddenly thoughtful. "Now that _is_ interesting…"

"She volunteered," Peter added, "but I absolutely refuse to let her."

"Well, it _will_ take a bit of planning," said Egon. "There are plenty of people in New York with secrets - how do we get it to come to us before them?"

"The _Lurid Weekly Gazette_ agreed to print an ad telling people to confess their secrets," said Janine. "We get a little corner on page twenty-two or something, and they're charging us. I don't think that will be enough to alert the whole of New York, but I do think that spreading the word is a good idea."

Egon nodded. "At least within a fair-sized radius of where the demon's living now, which is something we'll have to find out. And before we can proceed much further we'll need somebody with a secret - preferably a big one - who's willing to act as bait."

"So let's call around everyone we know," said Peter.

"Janine can start doing that," said Egon. "Meanwhile I'll take a team and start tracking down the demon, and we'll also start getting the word out. I think the only thing to do is warn people in person, and tell them to pass it on to everyone they know - word should get out pretty fast that way. There will be people who don't take us seriously, of course, but there's very little we can do about that."

"We already started that, of course, when we called our friends and families," Eduardo said quietly. "I'll go with you, Egon."

"Me too," Kylie said quickly.

"You don't have to," said Eduardo. "You're supposed to be doing PhD stuff today, remember? Why don't you go home and do that until it's time to pick up Rose?"

Kylie looked dubious. "Will you be ok?"

"I'll be fine," said Eduardo. "And Roland, I think you should take Peter in the Mustang - it's just dumb to have four of us telling the same person about the demon all at once."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Kylie hadn't liked letting Eduardo go in such a fragile state, but of course she wasn't his mother and she knew she had to let him. She managed to absorb herself in study for the rest of the morning - and then once Rose was home, and later Conchita, time seemed to speed up considerably. Eduardo came home just in time to put Rose to bed, and then spent an hour playing with Conchita before she too turned in for the night. They were sensitive children, and they both seemed to realise something was upsetting him - he got a lot of hugs that evening. Then finally, he gave Kylie a progress report over dinner.

"The word's out," he said. "We must have told about fifty or sixty people to pass it on. That means the demon's going to be moving around once it wakes up, but it's nocturnal - you know that, of course - so it doesn't know yet that its food's been disappearing. We tracked it down to some random alley. If it wakes up, Ray and Winston are going to do their best to follow it around and try to stop it from killing anybody."

"That sounds good," said Kylie.

"We haven't found our bait yet, but Garrett says he might know someone."

"Right. Good."

Though she desperately wanted to know, Kylie wasn't going to ask him how he was feeling about Bess. She knew he must be upset about it - _very_ upset, considering the circumstances - but if he didn't want to talk about it, she wasn't going to force him. She just let him guide what conversation there was for the rest of the evening, and then they retired to bed, both extremely tired from their lack of sleep the night before.

Kylie didn't know how long she had been asleep when she woke up and found herself alone. She reached over and found that Eduardo's side of the bed was still warm, and then squinted at the digital alarm clock - it was just after two a.m. She waited a minute or so, in case he had just gone to the bathroom, but he didn't materialise.

"Hey," said Kylie, once she'd found him curled up on the sofa. He was sitting in the dark, and she could just about see that he was swiping at tears. "Didn't we establish years ago that it's ok for you to cry in front of me?"

"Yeah, well… not this time," he said, the tears choking his voice.

"What do you mean?"

"It just feels really wrong to be mourning her like this. I love _you_. Bess and I were barely together six months. We broke up more than nine years ago, and if I hadn't bumped into her a couple of times last year I never would have even _seen_ her since then."

"But you _did _see her." Kylie sat down next to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "You talked to her - you tried to be her friend."

"I never loved her," said Eduardo.

"But you were together. You at least _liked_ her enough to stay with her for six months - of course it's right for you to mourn her."

"Wanda was right. It _is_ my fault."

"Oh, baby… no…"

"I got her pregnant."

"But you didn't know - that's the whole point. _She_ chose to have the abortion. _She _chose not to tell you."

"But I knew she had an abortion. She told me last year - I could have asked her then if it was mine."

He was still crying. Kylie raised her hands to his face as she said, "It's not your fault."

"I knew she had a secret… or I knew she _might_ have had one. I should have called and warned her."

"Oh, honey… you couldn't possibly have known…"

"I was after the demon last night - we should have found it before it got to her."

"No, look, come on, it could have been anywhere - there was no way to - "

"And we were having _sex_ while it happened!"

She sighed heavily. There was no way they could have known - but even so, Kylie had to concede that the thought of Bess possibly dying while she and Eduardo were enjoying making love was just horrible.

"Well… maybe," she said. "Or maybe after. Or, or before."

"But Ky, that's terrible!"

"No… Eddie, come on… neither of us could have known…"

"I told you, didn't I? When I was with her, I was wishing she was you." He took a great, juddering breath before continuing. "It didn't even have to happen. I'd been in love with you for _weeks_ when I asked her out - if I'd just been honest about the way I felt…"

"Well," said Kylie, "in that case it's just as much my fault as it is yours."

"_What_? No!"

"You were with her because you thought I wasn't interested. I never told you this, Eddie, but… but when she was giving you her number, I was so jealous, I just wanted to go over there and rip it up! But I didn't, I just kept on telling myself you weren't right for me."

"Kylie, it's not _your_ fault."

"Well it's not your fault either."

"Oh… maybe not completely," said Eduardo, "but I still feel terrible. I can't stop thinking about how it all must have made her _feel_. I'd just broken up with her, and then she found out she was pregnant…"

"She could have told you," said Kylie, "if she'd wanted to."

"I…" He stopped.

"Go on."

"Oh God, this is going to sound terrible."

"It's ok, you can tell me."

"I feel like I should be mad that she didn't even tell me she was pregnant," he said. "But I'm not. I… I'm not sorry she just went ahead and did it."

"No." Kylie looked away. "I'm not either."

"I feel bad about that. It was my kid… and when I think about Conchita and Rose…" He stopped, and took another deep breath. "But Ky, I've never wanted any child but ours. And she knew that. Well, she didn't know it was _you_, but I'd told her I was in love with somebody else - that's why she did it."

"Eduardo, please, it is _not your fault_!" She shifted her body closer to him, and wrapped her arms tighter around his neck. "Listen to me. This thing feeds on secrets. Other people are bound to be involved, but ultimately the only person responsible for a secret is the one who's keeping it."

He didn't say anything else. Kylie just held onto him for several more minutes, and then finally Eduardo gently disentangled her arms from around his neck and they both went back to bed.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Spencer had been to Garrett's apartment before, and so wasn't surprised when the first thing he saw was his friend's three-year-old son performing a streak across the hallway. He _was_ surprised, however, when an extremely cute black and tan mongrel puppy came and started making love to his right leg. Spencer couldn't help noticing that the puppy's feet were ominously big - that dog was clearly going to grow to quite a size.

"Since when have you had a puppy?" he asked.

"Since Jo decided she wanted one yesterday afternoon," Garrett said dryly.

"Well, I missed having a dog around," said Jo, suddenly materialising in the doorway to the living room. "Oh God, I'm sorry about that - I don't remember my brothers' dog ever being that randy when he was this age. Come on, Knicks, stop that," and she began trying to pull the puppy away from Spencer's shin. "Can I get you anything, Spence?"

Spencer said he didn't want anything, so Garrett took him to the living room and told him to sit down. Then he cut to the chase. He explained to Spencer the situation with Secernerus, to the sound of Jo and Max frolicking noisily with Knicks in the next room.

"Right," said Spencer, once Garrett had reached the part about setting a honey trap for the demon. "I think I see where this is going."

"So will you?" Garrett asked eagerly.

"Well, Garrett, the thing is I've got Natalie tonight. I told you, remember?"

"Oh yeah, so you did. Well… so what? You can spend the evening with her, and then after she's gone to bed you can leave her with Stephanie and come to the firehouse - it'll only take a couple of hours."

"How do you know it won't take all night?"

"I, I, I don't," Garrett had to admit.

"And I can't really leave her with Stephanie - that completely defeats the whole point of a sleepover."

"Spence, it sounds to me like you're making excuses."

"No, really, I'm not," Spencer said hurriedly. "If any good can come of what I did, then great, I'm all for it. If it was any other night…"

"But we can't wait," said Garrett. "People are dying - it'll be somebody else tonight. My bosses are even now weaving together some kind of ingenious plan."

"Well… you must know _somebody_ else with a secret."

"Well, Spence… your secret's pretty huge, isn't it?"

"Oh yes," Spencer said darkly.

"Egon said, the bigger the better," Garrett went on. "Peter - that's another one of my bosses - his daughter has a secret that he suspects is pretty big, but of _course _he won't let her act as bait."

"Well, no, he wouldn't," Spencer said reasonably. "Would you let Max?"

"I don't know - maybe if he was fourteen, like this girl."

"What I _could_ do," said Spencer, "is find out what Grace thinks about all of this. She's Nat's mother - if she says it's fine for me to leave for a few hours to try and deal with a dangerous demon, I guess that'd be ok."

"I thought you'd take more persuading than this," remarked Garrett.

"Well Garrett, you know how bad I feel about that whole thing… God, must be ten years ago now. I really want to try and make up for it, and I won't pretend this doesn't make me extremely nervous, but you guys have already saved me from a Golem once - I trust you not to let me die in the process."

"Well then," said Garrett. "Let us proceed. You are more than welcome to use my phone."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Grace had been bankrupted out of the game of Monopoly long before the phone rang, and looked faintly relieved as she went to answer it. Natalie had been trying to squeeze what was left of Roland's money and property out of him for a good half-hour. He was nearly down and out, and yet somehow hanging in there.

Roland had never known a seven year old to be so competitive. He'd heard that Jessica Venkman's love of winning had been with her practically since babyhood, but this was the first time he had ever actually experienced such a phenomenon firsthand. Of course, Natalie was an athlete - Roland's experience of athletes had led him to conclude that they had to be competitive by nature. The first few times he had spent afternoons with Grace and her daughter, he had expected to have to humiliate himself with a basketball or a tennis racquet or a baseball bat. Only recently had Grace explained that sports were Natalie's way of spending quality time with her father, and she'd resent anybody else trying to bond with her in this way - especially her mother's semi-official boyfriend.

Natalie had just won the game when Grace came back from the hall and said, "Honey, do you want to talk to Dad?"

"Is he still ok for tonight?" asked Natalie, her dark eyes growing wide with anxiety.

"Of course," said Grace. "He said he's going to have to step out for a few hours, but that won't be until after you're asleep."

"Is he leaving me with Stephanie?"

"I certainly hope so. He'll be back by morning - you won't even know he's gone."

Natalie hurried out to the hallway, picked up the phone and began chatting happily to her father.

"She really loves Spence, you know," said Grace, sitting down on the floor next to Roland (it was the best place for board games in that house). "He's good to her."

"I should hope he is - he's her father."

"And she likes _you_. You have a way with children - I can tell."

"Well," said Roland, "I've had the practice."

"Of course," said Grace. She knew Roland was the oldest of seven children. "And your sister's baby must be due soon, mustn't it?"

"Four weeks."

"Wow, that's so exciting! It'll be great, you'll love it. I remember how excited Luke was when Natalie was born."

"I'm counting the days," said Roland, who was bursting with excitement at the prospect of meeting his new baby niece or nephew - a feeling that almost entirely eclipsed his slight sense of envy. He had always wanted children, so much so that his visions of the future sometimes seemed to skip the stage of actually finding somebody to bear them.

Now, of course, he had Grace. She'd already done the whole kid thing once, and he was desperate to ask her if she wanted to have more. He was growing extremely fond of her, but if she didn't want any more children, well…

"So anyway, what does Spencer have to do tonight that's so urgent?" asked Roland.

"Ah." Grace pursed her lips. "Well, if no one's told you maybe I shouldn't, but… all right. You know there's this plan to catch your demon tonight?"

"Yes," Roland said guardedly.

"Well, Spen-… Hey, you're not planning on cutting our date short for it, are you?"

"Oh no, no of course not. They can do it without me."

"Good," Grace nodded approvingly. "Well, Spence has agreed to be the bait."

Roland raised his eyebrows. "He has a secret?"

"It's allowed."

"Do _you_ know what it is?"

"I do actually, and I'm not telling you."

"I don't want you to," said Roland. "He's entitled to his secrets."

"Do _you_ have any?" asked Grace.

"Not one," said Roland. "Which seems to put me in something of a minority - I feel very uninteresting."

"Well I'm glad," said Grace. "I don't have any either. Honesty above all else, that's what I say."

"What about forgiveness?"

"That's a very close second. Ah, Natalie - that was fast."

"Well I'm seeing him later," said Natalie. "He's taking me to see Garrett's new puppy."

Roland blinked. "Garrett's got a _puppy_?"

"Mom, can you take me to Dad's at five instead of six?" asked Natalie. "Garrett and Jo are taking Max and the puppy to the park to try and wear them out so they'll both sleep tonight, and Dad said they'd take him and me and maybe Stephanie with them."

"Of course I can," said Grace.

"Jo got him yesterday," said Natalie, answering Roland's question now that the apparently more urgent matter had been dealt with. "He's called Knicks. I think that's a great name - don't you?"

"Well," said Roland, "not a name _I'd_ give to a dog, but… sure."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Kylie spent the day on call at the firehouse, as she wasn't to be involved with the honey trap later. She would have liked to be there, but someone had to stay with her children, and she knew that Eduardo must be able to go if he wanted to. For him, it was personal.

"Egon was there," said Kylie, when she arrived home in the early evening. "I don't know when he expects to sleep."

"Probably tomorrow," said Eduardo, who was disposing of Conchita and Rose's recently emptied dinner plates. "So who else is gonna be there, apart from me and him?"

Kylie stooped to hug her daughters, who were sitting at the kitchen table. "Garrett," she said, "to give Spencer some moral support, and Peter. Egon said he didn't need to, but he insisted because he's been so involved with this case and because he's indirectly responsible for the honey trap idea."

"Did you have any calls?"

"Yeah, just a quick one - somebody had an imp in their washing machine. We spent most of the day calling around everyone we knew, seeing if they had any secrets. It occurred to Egon that Secernerus might be more tempted if there was more than one meal on offer."

"We already called everybody and told them to confess," Eduardo pointed out. "Did you find anyone?"

"We tried Amy, seeing as how Roland's with Grace tonight, but in his absence her father prohibited her coming. And Peter won't let Jess, so… no."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

They started with dinner at a restaurant with fair prices and polite service. Grace picked it - Roland had never been there before, and had yet to discover what the food was like.

"You know, Roland," she said, while they were waiting for their order, "it's a good thing he's doing."

Roland tensed slightly. He really didn't want to talk about Spencer _again_. He said shortly, "I know. Nobody's all bad."

"You saw him with Natalie today."

Spencer, as promised, had invited Roland and Grace in "for coffee" when they called round in the early evening. Roland had been nervous about making small talk, and probably so had Spencer - but as it turned out, Spencer and Natalie did most of the talking, with Spencer's live-in girlfriend chipping in occasionally. Natalie gave them time to get through the coffee, and then said she wanted to go to the Millers' apartment to meet Knicks and take him to the park. Once at said park, Roland, Grace, Garrett and Jo (Stephanie had stayed at home) had stood around talking while Spencer played with Natalie, Max and the puppy, which admittedly had been pretty cute to watch.

In response to Grace's very unnecessary reminder, Roland said simply, "Yes."

"I thought maybe it'd turn your head," said Grace. "They're really sweet together, him and Nat."

"I daresay," said Roland. "But I _was_ hoping not to talk about Spencer tonight."

"I'm sorry," said Grace. "I just want you to - oh, forget it, I'm not going to say it again."

"I do admire your morals, Grace," said Roland. "Are you, um…"

She raised her eyebrows. "Religious?"

"Well… yes."

"A lot of people think that. I'm not - I am utterly agnostic. I don't know _what's_ out there, and I think anybody who claims that they do is kidding them- are you religious?"

Roland smiled slightly at her poor recovery. "Not especially. I believe in God, but I don't imagine I know everything about him."

"Right," said Grace. "Well, to be honest, I don't see that God is relevant to my value base - it's perfectly possible to be a good person without having God."

"Oh, of course," said Roland. "But surely you can see why people might think that. It's a pretty Christian value base, after all: honesty, forgiveness, turn the other cheek…"

"Well, yes, ok, Christians do tend to emulate morals that I admire - I suppose I can see why people might assume that." She took a deep breath, and seemed to struggle to keep her eyes on him. "Especially if they get wind that I don't have sex before marriage."

Roland didn't know quite what to say. Not that he'd object if she offered, but he'd given no indication of wanting to take their relationship quite _that_ far yet, or so he believed. Perhaps she thought it best to warn him before he tried it, to save him the disappointment. He said, "Yes, well… I suppose that's unusual for agnostics in this day and age."

"Not as unusual as you might think," said Grace. "I don't judge people who do it, you understand - if it feels right for them, then great. But I just prefer not."

"Well, fair enough."

"Most guys run a mile when they find that out."

"Not while they're in a restaurant waiting for their order, surely."

"Does it bother you?" asked Grace, with much the same expression and tone of voice that Natalie had used when asking whether she would still be seeing her father that day.

Roland shook his head. To be perfectly honest, at this stage in the proceedings, it actually sounded preferable to the alternative. People really did seem to have too much sexual freedom these days, he thought, what with Eduardo unintentionally impregnating two different women and Garrett and Jo taking on the abused and neglected child of a couple of drug addicts and his own little sister quite possibly having experience of an erect penis and his other sister pregnant without even knowing who the father was…

"I don't want you for your body," said Roland.

Grace suddenly broke into a smile of sheer delight. "That's sweet. Nobody's ever said that to me before."

"What about Spencer?"

The smile wavered. "I thought you didn't want to talk about him."

"Well," said Roland, "I'm curious. I'm sorry, I know it's none of my business, but I can't help it. You… don't have to tell me anything," he added feebly.

"No, it's ok," said Grace. "I want you to forgive him and get along with him for my daughter's sake - I've _made _him your business. Go on, ask me anything."

"I just… I really wonder how it happened. I mean, you were both so young when you married, and you seem so… so _different_."

"Different how?" asked Grace. "Physically? Culturally?"

"I don't mean because he's white." He felt faintly indignant that she should think this.

"Well you don't mean because he's racist - he's not."

"I know," said Roland. He at least had to concede that much. "He's weak, I get it. But you're strong. You know your own mind, but he clearly doesn't - or at least he didn't. He was immature back then, but I bet _you_ weren't."

"I might have been. You don't know."

"No, I don't."

"But I suppose I wasn't," said Grace. "Oh - thank you," for their food had arrived at last. "When I found out I was pregnant I didn't feel scared, even though I wasn't quite twenty - I only felt happy. And ready. Spence didn't - he just freaked out."

"Whose idea was it to get married?" asked Roland.

"Ah, well," said Grace. "His. I was nineteen - it probably wasn't very clever to say yes, really. Maybe if I'd slept with him while we were dating it wouldn't have happened - oh don't look like that, I wanted it as much as he did. I'm not frigid."

"I didn't think you were. That is I, I hadn't thought about it at all… I mean…" Yikes!

"Just don't assume it's always the man who wants it more," said Grace. "And that is _definitely_ not all there was to it. For the year that we were dating, we'd had a pretty… intense relationship. You remember that Christian-esque value base we talked about? I met him at my brother's birthday party, and I could tell he was miserable about something - I only wanted to help him.

"Listen, I'll tell you something about Spence. This isn't true so much anymore, but back then he had absolutely no direction in life, no idea what he wanted to do - he had to have something to _follow_. At one time, that was the gang of racist thugs. After that, when he'd broken away from them and felt guilty, it was me. You said I know my own mind. I think Spence really admired that about me - he latched onto me because he could see I was solid enough to lean on. And then obviously we grew close. I loved him, and he loved me - it was as much as I knew at the time. _That's_ why I married him."

They moved on from Spencer after this. Grace wanted to hear about all of Roland's brothers and sisters, starting with Tara and working all the way down the line to the youngest, Joey. Roland made a point of telling her that Amy had had a two-and-a-half year relationship with Oscar Venkman, but Grace was unmoved by this - she wasn't familiar with Mood Slime, so Roland told her about them. He said that he knew Oscar well, and the others a bit too; they were nice kids, he said, but he didn't particularly like their work, which inevitably led onto a discussion about music. Grace looked faintly surprised when Roland said he favoured classical. She liked some classical music ok, she said, but give her jazz and R&B any day.

It was only when they were strolling back to Roland's car that the subject of Spencer came up again. Roland said, "It sounds like you and Spencer had some good times."

"We did," said Grace.

"And you said yourself that your relationship was intense. Grace… tell me honestly. After him, can I compete?"

"Compete?" They came to a stop a yard or so from the car. "You don't have to _compete_. Spence and I were together a long time ago - it's been over for years. We'll always be connected by Natalie, of course, but… I also said what I felt for Spencer was as much as I knew back then. But it didn't really go all that deep. It's not like… how it is with you."

Roland raised his eyebrows. "How is it with me?"

Grace didn't speak. She answered instead by putting her hands on his shoulders, craning her neck and instigating their first kiss.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

As soon as they had shut the door on their sleeping little girls, Eduardo took Kylie's face in both of his hands and started kissing her deeply.

"Will you make love to me, Kylie?" he murmured, not taking his mouth away from hers.

She was faintly surprised, because he was still feeling extremely upset about Bess, which Kylie thought would hinder her sex drive if she was in a similar position. But, as she well knew, he was different. Whenever Eduardo was upset he did his best not to think about it, and the physical and emotional sensations of making love always improved his state of mind tremendously.

"Of course I will," said Kylie, and led him through to the bedroom.

It was sensual and unhurried. They even achieved simultaneous climax, or near enough, and then he continued to kiss and caress her while he told her what a wonderful lover she was. Kylie vaguely wondered if he was feeling particularly appreciative of her now that he had been reminded of how precarious life was. Maybe part of the guilt he was feeling was down to unwelcome gratitude that it had been Bess who had died, and not her.

Then she caught sight of the clock on the dresser, and murmured in his ear, "You have to go now, baby."

He was still on top of her, kissing her neck. She loosed her arms from around his shoulders and he rose onto his hands, gazing down at her with dark, glazed eyes.

"Yeah," he said quietly.

Eduardo climbed out of bed and started pulling on his Ghostbuster uniform - or rather, the more hardwearing casual clothes he wore for ghostbusting. Kylie stayed where she was, but he suspected that she'd get up and do something constructive for an hour or two after he'd gone - it was only just after ten o'clock. She might even stay up all night waiting to find out what happened with Secernerus.

He was dressed in under a minute; then he went back to the bed and stooped to kiss Kylie one more time. He cupped her chin in his hand, and then moved his palm slowly over her neck and breast and down the length of her body, feeling her squirm when he touched the more sensitive parts of her. It was sorely tempting to get back into bed with her and just forget about that damned demon, and Bess.

His relationship with Bess had never been like this. Even now Kylie's breathing was still shallow and she gasped at his touch, probably still tingling from their lovemaking, just as he was. Bess had never really wanted him the way she did, and she hadn't excited him as much either. She'd said things and done things that made him smile, they'd had a few emotionally charged conversations and grown close, and in spite of a few false starts even the sex had got better with practice… but none of it had ever been like it was with Kylie. Eduardo stifled a sigh. He had always felt bad that he'd never been able to love Bess. She was a sweet girl with a very big heart, and she deserved better.

"I love you," he murmured.

"I love you too," said Kylie, blowing out the air she had sucked in as he withdrew his hand from between her thighs. "Good luck."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

It was a Saturday night, but Eduardo was able to get a cab anyway - if his father and brother had taught him anything, it was how to be assertive. The driver wasn't chatty, and so Eduardo found himself with some time alone with his thoughts - unwanted, and most unwelcome time.

Since the night before, when he'd silently cried himself to sleep with Kylie breathing heavily beside him, he had absolutely refused to think about Bess. The guilt would surely kill him. What his friends didn't know was that Bess' abortion had rendered her barren, which made the whole thing ten times worse. After Eduardo had learnt this, it hadn't even occurred to him to wonder how she knew. Had she tried to have a baby and failed? Had she become very ill following the procedure, and had to have a total heistorectamy? He was no expert on these things, but he knew that she surely must have gone through _something_ in order to find out, and it was all because of -

"I'll just be a minute," said Eduardo, jumping out of the cab when it had stopped outside Spencer's apartment block. He found the intercom, pressed the appropriate button and let Spencer know that he was waiting. Sharing a cab had seemed sensible - the chances of both of them getting one on a Saturday night were laughable, and they could split the fare.

While he waited, Eduardo did his best to keep his mind away from Bess and her life post-him. Spencer, he reflected, had probably had a similar evening to his: he would have played with his daughter and given her something to eat, kissed her goodnight and then made love to his girlfriend. He was almost certain to have done the latter, because there was a jeopardy in this situation that did not apply to Eduardo: as far as Spencer was concerned, this could be goodbye forever.

"Eduardo," said Spencer, obviously nervous, once they were both sitting in the back of the cab. "I forget. Did I ever tell you how sorry I am about -?"

"Don't sweat it," said Eduardo.

"Do you mean that?"

"Of course."

"You've forgiven me?"

"Yes."

"That's really big of you," said Spencer. "I still feel bad about it."

"We've all done things we regret," Eduardo said significantly.

"Do you think I should tell Natalie?"

Christ, what _was_ this? "It doesn't matter what I think."

"Well no, but… what if it was you? What if you were hiding something huge that you really didn't want to tell your girls, but they deserved to know? Would you do it?"

"Probably not," said Eduardo. "I'm too big a coward."

"Me too," said Spencer, sounding faintly relieved that Eduardo had said this.

"And it's in the past now - it doesn't matter," Eduardo went on, determined that at least Spencer should feel better even if he couldn't. "Why make her hate you for something you did when you weren't even yourself?"

"Yeah… I suppose you're right."

"Of course I am."

"When I put her to bed tonight, I told her I'd be back before she woke up tomorrow."

"You will."

"Will I?"

"We know what we're doing," said Eduardo.

"Oh, I know," said Spencer. "I wouldn't have agreed to do this if I didn't trust you."

"Well then."

"Yeah."

They fell silent after this, which Eduardo felt very relieved about. He didn't object to bonding in principle, but he also considered it something that shouldn't be entered into lightly, and he only ever got emotional with people he was exceptionally close to. Going from memory, Spencer hadn't seemed a particularly open or emotional guy either - Eduardo had really thought that he'd be safe from intense conversations with him.

"What the _fuck_?" the cab driver exclaimed, as he suddenly realised what was amiss. Their descent into darkness had been gradual, and hard to notice at first; but in truth they hadn't actually passed a single working light - either a street light or one in the window of a building - for a few hundred yards.

"Is this you guys' doing?" murmured Spencer.

"Ah-ha," Eduardo answered quietly.

"How?"

"You'll have to ask Egon."

"This is way too dangerous," complained the cab driver.

"No it's not, your headlights are working, aren't they?" said Spencer.

"Look, don't sweat it - the road closes here anyway," said Eduardo, pointing ahead to a sign caught in the taxi's headlights. "We'll walk."

They got out of the cab, split the fare and walked the last half-mile or so to the firehouse. There were absolutely no cars on the roads, which prompted Spencer to ask if this was yet another of Egon's clever tricks.

"Actually," said Eduardo, "one of mine. My brother's a cop, and he managed to get us a load of police tape and some 'Road Closed' signs. Hopefully it won't happen until after we've dealt with the demon, but Carlos did warn me that we might get a little visit from the police. He didn't even want to give us anything until I told him… someone we know died." Carl had been fond of Bess for the six months that he knew her.

"Oh man, I'm sorry!" said Spencer. "Garrett never said."

"Well there's nothing you could have done about it," mumbled Eduardo, hanging his head as they completed the last hundred yards of their walk.

The firehouse itself was in utter darkness, but many of the surrounding buildings were well lit. Spencer had noticed that places were lit up at odd intervals, but there was always a path of total darkness that led right to the firehouse. He had almost asked Eduardo why the area was like this, but then realised that it actually wasn't at all difficult to figure out. Clearly this demon must like darkness. This was just the same principle, and at the same time the reverse of luring a moth by lighting up a single spot in a darkened room.

"Ah, there you are," said Egon's voice, the moment they were through the door.

Eduardo squinted through the darkness, and was able to make out the forms of Egon, Peter and Garrett. Spencer had already left his side, and was heading straight for Garrett. His fear was already filling the atmosphere, and Garrett must have sensed it too as he said, "Spence, don't worry, it'll be fine."

"Once we've lured the demon here it should all be downhill," added Egon.

"You'll be fine, Spencer," said Peter, groping his way through the darkness. "Hi, I'm Peter Venkman," he added, finding Spencer's hand and shaking it.

"Hi," Spencer said vacantly.

Eduardo, who was still hovering near the doorway, said, "I have a question."

"I have several, but I was just keeping quiet," said Peter.

"How can we be sure the demon's going to - "

His voice was suddenly drowned out by an engine sound, and they all stared at the doorway in utter amazement. What did this person think "Road Closed" meant? It had sounded like a motorcycle, and this deduction was confirmed at least for Peter when Cameron Doherty walked into the room, followed immediately by Jessica.

"What the hell are you playing at?" cried Peter, marching over to Cameron.

"Why don't you ask your daughter?" said Cameron, taking a step back as Peter strode into his personal space.

"I want to help, Dad," said Jessica. "I felt terrible just lying in bed with my secret while this person Garrett knows is here risking his life."

"I thought she dumped you," said Peter, still addressing Cameron.

"She did," Cameron said dryly. "But she evidently still likes my motorcycle."

"Thanks for the lift, Cam," said Jessica. "You can go now if you like."

"No, that's ok, I'll stay," said Cameron. "As it happens, I have a secret too."

"You do?" Jessica asked interestedly.

"Yes," said Cameron, but he didn't elaborate. "See, Jess explained this all to me, and her thinking was the more secrets on offer here, the more likely the demon is to show up."

"I was just going to ask," said Eduardo, "how we can be sure it's going to show up at all."

"The only way we can be certain," said Egon, "is if two or three of us go out looking for it, and make sure it comes here."

"I'm staying," Garrett said at once, to Spencer's immense relief.

"I can't go anywhere, I have to take Jess home," said Peter.

"I'm not going anywhere, Dad."

"Jess, where does your mom think you are?"

"In bed. Asleep."

"Oh, Jessica!"

"I'm staying," said Jessica. "Egon, I'm right, aren't I? My secret and Spencer's will be twice as powerful as just Spencer's on its own, won't they?"

"Yes," said Egon, "I should say so."

"Not forgetting mine," added Cameron.

"Cameron," Egon said thoughtfully. "How big is your secret?"

"Well, fairly. If my mom found out, I'd feel like I couldn't ever face her again."

"In that case I'd like you to accompany me on our pursuit of Secernerus - you'll give it a reason to follow us. Hopefully there are far fewer secrets in New York since we've been spreading the word - it might be glad of having one dangled in front of its nose. Eduardo, you'll have to join us, as Peter and Garrett both want to stay with our bait."

"Fine," said Eduardo.

"Right then, there isn't a moment to lose," Egon said briskly, heading towards the Ecto-1. "Peter, Garrett - I want everyone ready and in the basement by the time we get back."

"Jessica's not going into the basement," said Peter.

"But Dad, I - "

"Just her being here will be enough, surely."

"Yes, all right, it probably will," said Egon. "Somebody stay by the two-way radio - I'll let you know when we're on our way back. Cameron, come along."

Cameron was hovering around Jessica, emanating an air of expectation.

"Well… good luck," she said dismissively.

"Is that all I get?" drawled Cameron.

"You heard the man, sonny, get in the car," Peter said sternly.

"Dad, leave him alone, he isn't even my boyfriend anymore," said Jessica, as Cameron traipsed dejectedly towards the Ecto-1.

"I didn't know you'd dumped him," said Garrett. "Why?"

"Never you mind," said Jessica, stepping away from the doorway as the Ecto-1 prepared to make its exit. "So what happens in the basement, anyway? I bet you would have let Oscar go into the basement - that's so not fair."

"I wouldn't," said Peter. "Oh, Spencer, that reminds me - you'll want to get to Tower Records bright and early on Monday for - "

"I already told him, Peter," said Garrett.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"So." In the back of the Ecto-1, Cameron leaned forward and draped his elbows casually over the front seats. "Do we know for sure this thing's going to be there?"

"There or very nearby," said Egon, who was driving. He did a good job of keeping his voice level, but Cameron was clearly beginning to get on his nerves.

"So when we find it," he said, "what do I do?"

"Do?" echoed Egon.

"You know - to make it follow me."

"There's nothing you _can '_do'. It should come after you without you having to _do_ anything, assuming it wants your secret."

"Will it bother it that I'm half incubus?"

"Why should it?" asked Eduardo, catching Egon's wearied look.

"Well, I'm sort of a demon myself, aren't I? It's hardly the same."

"Look," said Eduardo. "Once we get to it, you'll find all of this out for yourself."

"But what if - "

"You're very chatty for somebody who's just been dumped."

Cameron suddenly dropped back, sinking into his seat. "Yeah, thanks for reminding me."

"Why _did_ she dump you?" Eduardo pressed.

"She wasn't exactly clear on that," said Cameron, "but I think she implied that I'm not enough for her. She wishes I was somebody else."

"Who?" Eduardo asked interestedly.

"I don't know. Maybe the guy her secret's about."

"Do you _know_ it's about a boy?" Egon asked suddenly.

"I don't know _what's_ in her head," Cameron said sadly, and he let out a melodramatic sigh. "She's a closed book, that woman. Never apologise, never explain. I ask her what she wants, and she slams the door in my face."

"Dude, she's fourteen," said Eduardo. "I doubt it's that complicated."

"Oh yeah?" said Cameron. "So what should I do?"

"You could try finding somebody else your own age," Egon deadpanned. "All right, here we are. And it's definitely close. Cameron, stay in the car. Eduardo, you come with me," and he started climbing out of the Ecto-1.

"I'll just stay here, then," Cameron said dryly, gazing around at the poorly lit alley.

"It's somewhere behind those trashcans," murmured Egon. "Now why isn't it heading for the car? Cameron has a nice big secret for it."

"Maybe it's not hungry," Eduardo said, not bothering to keep his voice down. "It doesn't _actually_ eat all that often, does it?"

"Hmm." Egon frowned. "I suppose not. Still, with its food supply hopefully depleting and a secret just sitting there in our car… I'll go and try to wake it up."

Egon produced something from somewhere about his person, which Eduardo realised was a pretty hefty flashlight when a powerful yellow beam appeared. Egon went over to the trashcans and started shining the torch around - and then, after a few seconds, Eduardo was vaguely aware of Egon's voice: "It's moving - get back to the car."

But the words hardly registered. Something else was happening… the light was filling his head, and he could hear a different voice coming from somewhere… _his_ voice…

"_You remember Bess?"_

"_Of course I remember Bess." _Carlos, his brother. _"What about her?"_

"_It got her."_

"_What?"_

"_The demon. It got her. She's dead."_

"_No… surely…"_

"_She's dead, Carlos."_

"_But she couldn't have had a… a…"_

"_A secret. She did."_

"_But a nice, quiet girl like her? What could it possibly have been?"_

Then he was assaulted by images - X-rated images of some of the most intimate moments from his past. Bess was underneath him, panting with pleasure, her eyes closed and her fair skin flushed… and then suddenly Kylie was in her place, raking her fingers over his back, whispering his name, gasping for more… He couldn't do it anymore. Whether he had a chance with Kylie or not, Bess deserved better than this. He had to end it. He saw her face, blinking back tears when he told her. She said she understood. Had she known then that she was pregnant? Had she been about to tell him? God, how he hoped not.

"_I don't know, Carlos. I just don't know."_

Something inside him, behind his heart, gave sudden jerk. There was no air in his lungs. He breathed in sharply, heard his gasp like rusty hinges, and fell to his knees. It was all getting away from now: Carlos, Bess, the fantasy image of Kylie - it was all being sucked out of him. It was an actual physical sensation, as though he was slowly vomiting them all out onto the concrete floor of the alley. But he had to keep hold of them. All he knew was that they _couldn't_ get out - he mustn't let them. He clenched every muscle in his body, screwed everything - his eyes, his mouth, his fists, his toes - tightly shut. But still something kept on pulling in all directions… it would surely tear him to pieces…

"Eduardo!"

And then it stopped. Everything seemed to rush back into him, the air streaming into his lungs - it was as though he was being suddenly inflated. Eduardo looked up sharply and saw Egon's face, the brow furrowed with concern, bathed in a powerful white light.

"Are you all right?"

"I…"

"I thought you didn't have any secrets."

Eduardo opened his mouth, but the effort of trying to speak was exhausting.

"Egon," a young voice said.

Egon turned his face away from Eduardo.

"I can't keep this up for much - " The light flickered and died.

"I think he's all right," said Egon, beginning to pull Eduardo to his feet. "That's a handy trick, Cameron. How long have you been able to do that?"

"Since I was a baby," said Cameron, who Eduardo now saw was out of the car. "But never for more than a second or two. Are you ok, man?"

"Oh, yeah, sure," said Eduardo, who wanted nothing more than a glass of water and a very long lie-down. "Where is it now?"

"I'll get it," said Cameron, turning round and heading away from the Ecto-1. "You guys get in the car - I'll be right there."

"Come on," said Egon, steadying Eduardo as he walked stiffly towards the car. "What happened, Eduardo? I thought you didn't have any - "

"Secrets, yeah, I know," Eduardo said irritably, shaking off Egon's helping hand. "I… I just recently acquired one without realising. What's Cameron doing? Who put _him_ in charge all of a sudden?"

"He saved your life," said Egon.

"Yeah," muttered Eduardo. "Ten bucks says the first thing he does when we get back is tell Jess about that."

Suddenly Cameron bundled into the back of the car and yelled, "Drive!" in a tone reminiscent of Gina Davis after the gas station robbery in _Thelma and Louise_. "I turned off all the lights between it and this alley - it's on its way. Drive!"

"Isn't it interested in you?" asked Egon, as he began reversing out of the alley.

"Guess not," panted Cameron, out of breath from running. "Good thing I came along, though, huh?"

"How did you know where it was?" asked Eduardo, catching the boy's impossibly dark eyes in the rear-view mirror.

Cameron shrugged. "I can just, I don't know, sense it or something." They passed under a row of streetlights, which spontaneously switched themselves off as they passed under each of them. "For a moment it felt like something was stepping on me."

"Sounds like it had a pop at you," said Eduardo.

"Yeah? I wonder why it backed off."

"It must not like cambions," Egon muttered grudgingly. "Keep an eye on that PKE meter, Eduardo - you don't want Secernerus catching up with you again."

Egon honoured his promise of radioing the team back at HQ while Eduardo stared fixedly at his PKE meter, thinking only of how terrifying that attack had been. Every fibre of his being had been stretching and tearing itself trying to hang onto that secret, all screaming at each other not to let it go. It was painful and exhausting, and he had just known that he would die with the effort of trying to keep it all inside him. In his heart of hearts, he didn't think he was a very strong person, but he really thought he was stronger than Bess had been. And she'd had to go through _that_…

"It's gaining!" Eduardo said suddenly.

Cameron whipped round and stared two beams of light at where he apparently believed Secernerus to be. The light lasted for all of a second, in which time Egon accelerated and the demon dropped back. Cameron then faced the front again and continued switching off streetlights, mumbling some disparaging comment about the demon being "gullible".

"And persistent for something that we thought wasn't hungry," said Egon, as they at last reached one of Carl Rivera's "Road Closed" signs and crashed through it dramatically. "Eduardo, as soon as I stop the car, get out and run down to the basement. And I mean _run_ - I don't think you could take another attack."

"Well, no," Eduardo muttered. "Me neither."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Peter found Jessica up in the rec room, straining to read a very worn hardback by the light of a ridiculously small angle-poise lamp.

"You're reading the Bible again?" he asked.

"Yeah, I told you, it's really interesting," said Jessica. "Y'know, so far at least, the only time a woman is mentioned is if she gets married or has a son."

"Well, it was written a long time ago."

"Yeah, I know."

"I'm going to have to ask you to turn that light off," said Peter. "Egon just got in touch - they're coming here, with the demon."

"Is Cameron ok?" asked Jessica.

"Cameron's fine. Why do you wanna know? I thought you dumped him."

"Dumping him is a far cry from wanting him dead," said Jessica, reaching behind her to turn off the lamp. "Well, I guess I can wait to find out what happens next in this thing."

There was a brief silence.

"Maybe," said Jessica, "it would be better if I went down to the basement."

"No," said Peter.

"You can't stop me."

"Oh, I bet I can."

"So what are we gonna do instead? Sit here in the dark and have a heart-to-heart? It's no good me telling you my secret _now_, Dad - we need it to get that demon here."

"It's on its way," said Peter.

"But it might decide to change direction," said Jessica. "We want to make this place as tempting as possible for it - that's why I just switched that light off, isn't it?"

"I don't want you to be in danger when it gets here."

"I'll be ok, Dad."

"Can you at least explain to me why it's so hard for you to tell me?"

He could barely even see her outline through the darkness, never mind the expression on her face. But he felt her shift uncomfortably as she said, "Because I did something stupid and dangerous and it would change your opinion of me."

"It wouldn't," said Peter.

"I think it would," said Jessica. "And anyway, you said it was ok for me to have a secret. You said… you _implied_ I didn't have to tell you everything."

"Of course you don't have to," said Peter. "It just upsets me that you don't feel you can."

"Is that them back already?" she said, as a car pulled into the foyer downstairs.

They both groped their way through the darkness, down the stairs and through the reception area. Neither of them said anything, on the off chance that it was burglars or something coming to ruin their plans. Then suddenly Peter bumped into someone who didn't feel at all like Egon, Eduardo or Cameron, and a female voice said, "Oh, sorry."

"Who the hell are you?" asked Peter.

"Dr. Venkman, this is Grace," broke in a more familiar voice - Roland's. "Grace, this is one of my bosses."

"I've heard about you, Dr. Venkman," Grace said pleasantly, shaking his hand.

"Nice to meet you," said Peter. "Roland, I absolutely refuse to pay you for this, you're supposed to be out on a date. Grace, really, I can't apologise enough for - "

"I wanted to come," Grace interrupted him. "Roland wondered how it was going, and I really wanted to know how Spence was doing."

"We don't know - he's in the basement with Garrett," said Jessica.

"This is my daughter Jessica," supplied Peter, finding Jessica's shoulders and pushing her towards Grace. "Honey, you stay here and chat to Roland and Grace while I go down to the basement and get ready to trap the demon."

"So," said Jessica, once her father had melted away into the darkness. "You're Roland-and-Grace already, are you? How are you enjoying your date?"

"Well," said Grace, "it's been good, but it might have been an idea to postpone it until another night - we've both been worrying about this."

"You and, um, _Spence_ are still getting on ok, then?" asked Jessica.

"Yes, we get along fine."

"That's big of you, after he married you under false pretences and abandoned you with a small baby."

"Jess, come on, that's not what he did," Roland said sternly. "Spencer loves Natalie and he sees her two or three times a week and he's not moving to England anytime soon."

"England?" Grace said bemusedly.

At this point the Ecto-1 roared dramatically onto the scene, and came to a screeching halt. Somebody threw open the passenger side door, clambered out and crashed heavily into Roland's Mustang.

"Ow! Who put that there?"

"Sorry, Eduardo," said Roland.

"Eduardo, get going!" Egon's voice cried frantically.

Eduardo didn't need to be told twice. He streaked through the darkness, bumping into a few things on his way, with Egon following at a more sedate pace. Very soon both of them had disappeared into the basement, leaving Cameron to climb out of the Ecto-1 at an even more sedate pace. Jessica went over to him, and grabbed both of his hands.

"Are you ok?"

"Why do you care? I thought you dumped me."

"Oh for God's sake!" said Jessica. "Why can nobody make the distinction between dumping somebody and not caring whether they live or die?"

"I'm fine," said Cameron. "I was never in any real danger. But Jess… why _did_ you dump me? Tell me what I did wrong and I'll fix it."

"Aww, that poor kid," Grace murmured to Roland.

But Jessica, for some reason, had gone suddenly and inexplicably quiet. Cameron, who was standing right by her, knew that she had fallen, and he reacted very quickly by sprinting over to the light switch and flicking it on. Jessica was on the floor, on hands and knees, panting and straining as though about to give birth.

It was unfortunate, perhaps, that Peter - followed closely by Egon - chose this moment to appear and say, "So where the hell is - oh my God! _What the hell is wrong with her_?"

Cameron, for the next thirty seconds or so, never faltered. He dived down onto the floor beside Jessica and grabbed her shoulders, and suddenly they both seemed to glow all over. Her breathing eased up and her body relaxed, at which point Cameron leapt up and sprinted to the door.

"Oh, yes, good," Egon approved, as the dark sky outside suddenly shone with a brilliant white light. "It has nowhere to go now expect the basement. Peter, are you -?"

"What do _you_ think, Egon?" snapped Peter, falling to his knees beside Jessica.

Egon went back down to the basement just as the light outside flickered and died. Cameron came back in, looking as though he might collapse at any moment, but still he found the strength to help Peter in getting Jessica onto her feet.

"Are you ok?" they asked in unison, Peter adding, "I knew you shouldn't have come!"

"Dad, don't freak out, I'm fine," said Jessica. "I guess we were pretty stupid not to see that coming, really. Cam… thanks for that."

"No problem," Cameron said awkwardly.

"Yeah, nice way to make up for bringing her here in the first place," Peter said acidly.

Grace and Roland had been watching all of this avidly, Roland having picked up a proton pack from somewhere just in case it was needed. They looked at each other awkwardly, Roland wondering if perhaps he ought to intervene - but Jessica, now over her little scare, apparently had the situation well in hand.

"Dad, don't," she said. "I told him to bring me and I wasn't gonna take no for an - oh!"

She stopped short, and everyone - Peter, Cameron, Roland and Grace - followed her gaze to the far corner of the room. Standing there was the silvery, lightly glowing figure of a very handsome young man. He smiled like a summer's day, and suddenly Jessica had rocketed across the room and into his arms. Then, before anyone could even begin to figure out what the hell was going on here, Jessica and the ghost were kissing.

"I did _not_ see this coming," said Jessica, smiling broadly as she pulled out of the kiss. "Where the hell did _you_ come from?"

"I couldn't say," said the ghost. "Maybe something to do with that… what _was_ that?"

"Oh, you know, a demon kind of thing. It, um, feeds on secrets."

"Ah," and he nodded as though this explained everything perfectly. "Listen, Jess… I'm so sorry about…"

"Oh, forget it," she said. "You weren't quite yourself then, were you?"

"Not quite." He took his eyes away from her then, and turned them onto the gaping, boggling faces of Cameron and Peter. "New boyfriend?"

"We just broke up."

"Are you going to keep me a secret forever, then? I really don't see how you can, now. Your… father, is it? Yes, I remember him now. He's seen me."

Jessica suddenly looked scared. "But…"

"Do you know what I think?" the ghost went on gently. "I think that if you weren't ready to let me go, I wouldn't be here."

Jessica's anxious expression hardened into a scowl. "What the hell is _that _supposed to mean?"

"Tell him," said the ghost, and he kissed her lightly again. "I have to go now, angel. You can't hold onto me forever. Are you going to tell him?"

"Oh, fucksake… yes, all right, I'll tell him," Jessica said irritably.

"That's my girl."

With this, the ghost disappeared. Jessica took a step back from the spot where he had been standing and just stared at the empty space in front of her, blinking back the tears that threatened to spill out of her. Then suddenly Cameron's voice cut into her empty mind: "What the _fuck_?"

"It's no big deal," said Jessica.

"Who the hell was that? Was he the guy you want _me_ to be?"

"Cameron, shut the hell up, I don't want you to be anybody but yourself."

"Jess…" said Peter. "Did you have a boyfriend that _died_?"

"Well… yeah, sort of. I'll tell you later, Dad, ok?"

"Will you?"

"Yes. I promised him… kinda. I'll tell you when we get home… right after we find out what's been going on in that basement."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"It's on its way," Egon said urgently, and turned on a powerful lamp at the top of the basement stairs. At once an unnatural shadow slid snakelike to the floor, and disappeared into the darkness.

Eduardo flicked on another, equally powerful lamp, looking pretty terrified and muttering something in Spanish. He breathed in sharply when he saw a small shadow flicker into the beam of light - but this disappeared at once, and it wasn't hard to guess where it was headed. Another light flicked on, this one being controlled by Spencer, who looked almost as scared as Eduardo. And then came one more, lighting up Garrett's entire body and with it the entire basement. The light was fairly concentrated, at its brightest around the four walls, and leaving a small patch of near-darkness in the middle of the floor. Now Secernerus was perfectly visible, and was moving across the floor towards Spencer…

"No you don't," said Garrett, and shot a blast of proton fire at it.

The shadow - which was disappointingly small, and particularly to Eduardo, who had felt the very severe effects of one of its attacks - retreated into the darker patch of floor in the middle of the room. From its body language, it didn't look happy, if a shadow _can_ look unhappy - and indeed, it appeared to be shrinking.

"Look, it's disappearing," said Garrett.

Egon shook his head, hurrying down the stairs with a trap in his hand. "That's not good enough," and he stood over the fading shadow, holding the trap open above it.

As the trap began to spew out yet more powerful light, everyone felt compelled to look away, all of them just catching the sight of the small shadow being pulled into the trap. Then suddenly everything went quiet. They all opened their eyes, and blinked against the still very harsh light of the room.

"We got it," said Egon, in a tone anyone might have used if dealing with something that _hadn't_ caused them and other people days of grief and anxiety. He carried the trap over to the containment unit, saying, "Good work, everyone."

"You ok, Spence?" asked Garrett.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," said Spencer, trying to blink away the spots of light that had formed in front of his eyes. "It was certainly different."

Eduardo began traipsing up towards ground level, followed by Spencer and Garrett, and finally Egon. They all caught raised voices on the way up and soon saw that Jessica, Cameron and Peter were involved in a heated argument. It looked very much as though Cameron was pestering Jessica, Peter was telling him to back off and Jessica was having a pretty good go at both of them. As for Eduardo, he had sat down on Janine's desk and was just staring into space, his face suddenly and totally drained of colour.

"Roland! What are you doing here?" exclaimed Garrett.

"Grace wanted to see Spencer," Roland said darkly, as Grace and Spencer headed straight for each other and hugged smilingly. "God, look at all of this! You see what I mean about secrets causing nothing but problems? You are not gonna _believe_ what it is that's gotten Cameron so upset. And look at Eduardo - he looks like he's about to faint."

"Well," said Garrett, "it's dealt with now."

"I wonder if there are any more like Secernerus."

"Hopefully not, but people will always be consumed by their secrets."

"Oh, that's deep," Roland said dryly.

"I thought it sounded pretty cool," said Garrett. "So how was your date?"

"I just wonder," said Roland, "how much longer Spencer is going to be such a big part of our relationship."

"Ro, lots of women are divorced. Look at… look at Dana - _her_ marriage is all right."

"Jess made that comparison. But Andre lives in England, and Oscar doesn't like him."

"Oh, look, Cameron's storming off on his motorcycle," said Garrett, evidently deciding that trying to reassure Roland was a lost cause. "And Peter and Jess are beckoning me - he gave me a lift. Hey, you know what'd be a nice gesture? If you offered to drive Spence and Eddie home and save them the bother of getting another cab."

"I will," said Roland, "because I'm a nice guy, but I'm finding it difficult to come around to Spencer when he's got his hands all over my girlfriend like that."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When they got home, Jessica kept her promise to Peter, and suddenly she couldn't hold back the tears anymore. She really hated herself for that - she never cried if she could possibly help it. He held her and rocked her like a baby, telling her it was ok and he understood why she did it. Then she went to bed, where she spent the rest of the night wishing that she'd made more of her brief time with Will. It was just so unexpected, she hadn't known what to say to him. She hadn't even really believed it was happening.

When she got up late the next morning, however, Jessica's grief had all but vanished - she only found that she was hugely relieved to have that secret off her chest after two years. She went to the bathroom and happened to glance out of the window, from where she saw Cameron heading in the direction of the nearest bus stop with a holdall slung over his shoulder - it was all very reminiscent of the end of an episode of _The Incredible Hulk_.

"CAMERON!" She ran down the road after him, still wearing the t-shirt and shorts she had slept in, and he turned round to face her. "His name was Will. He was a vampire and I was stupid and I liked him but you were a much better boyfriend. I'm sorry."

Cameron raised his eyebrows. "Were? I'm still dumped, then?"

"Well…" He _had_ saved her life. "You wanna give it another shot?"

Cameron seemed to relax. He smiled that beguiling smile of his, and said, "Maybe not right now. I'm not leaving because you broke my heart, Jess. I'm going to Omaha."

"Omaha?" said Jessica. "Why would you go to Omaha? That's so random."

"I've decided to go and see someone who's been a pen pal of mine for a few weeks now," said Cameron. "Well, an e-mail pal, really. See, turns out I have a half-sister."

Jessica blinked. "How can you have a half-sister?"

"On my father's side."

"Oh, I see."

"Last night… I was able to tap into a lot of powers I never knew I had - and I tell you, Jessica, I am _shattered_. Egon apparently can't stress enough that all us cambions are different, but I figure if anyone can help me, she can."

"I figure you're right," said Jessica. "Wow… this is sudden. I'll miss you. No, really," she added, as Cameron gave her a dubious look. "And… thank you for saving my life."

"Don't sweat it," said Cameron. "Jess, listen… you are just the coolest person - I wouldn't be surprised if some other guy swooped in and snapped you up while I'm away. But if not… maybe when I get back we could start again?"

"We'll see how the land lies," Jessica smiled crookedly.

"Cool. Well, I gotta go catch my bus." He grabbed her chin, tipped her head and kissed her. "See ya, Venkman," and he turned and swaggered away towards the horizon.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Wanda watched through her tears as the small crowd began to wander away from the open grave. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand - and then suddenly she saw him, clear as day, and her grief at once turned to anger. How _dare_ he be there! And not just that - he actually had the nerve to be talking to Bess' parents. Offering them his empty condolences, probably. Oh, if only they knew that this was the man responsible…

"Hey."

Suddenly Wanda felt hands on her shoulders, and she turned round to see the sadly smiling face of Celine.

"Can you believe that?" Wanda said acidly. "He's talking to her mom and dad."

Celine nodded. "I see them."

"Oh Celine, I'm so glad you're here." Wanda's tone changed abruptly, and she pulled her old friend into a tight hug. "I could have never handled this on my own."

"I wish I'd never left," said Celine. "I hadn't seen her for… oh, years."

"But you're back now," said Wanda. "That's all that matters."

They pulled apart slightly, and kissed for several seconds. When they broke apart, Celine looked over Wanda's shoulder and said, in a low voice, "Don't look now, but Eduardo's spotted us. Oh, he's so _shocked_!" she added, with a mirthless and disdainful laugh.

"Well, you know what men are like," said Wanda. "He probably thinks it's impossible to satisfy a woman without using a penis. Honestly, I can't believe Bess actually _wanted_ one of those things in her. And look what it led to." She paused for effect, then went on, "Thank God _you_ saw sense. I tell you, Celine, when you and Bess were ogling that football player in college way back when, I thought there was no hope for either of you."

"I was young back then," said Celine "Young and very, _very _foolish. You know what _I _can't believe? I can't believe he married Kylie."

"Yeah, I know. Her too - what a _waste_!"

"Seems you and Eduardo have similar taste in women."

Wanda shook her head. "After Chip, and then him, I tried to tell Bess that men were bad news, but I never wanted her for myself. She was just a _very_ good friend. God, I'm gonna miss her."

"Hey, come on, we'll get through this," said Celine, lifting her hands and catching the tears that rolled down Wanda's cheeks.

"Oh, I know we will," Wanda said darkly. "I swore revenge on him - I'm sure he thinks I didn't mean it."

Celine raised her eyebrows. "_Did _you mean it?"

"I've never meant anything more in my life."

"Well, what'll you do? Didn't you learn a lesson from Surnunos?"

"Of course I did," said Wanda. "I learnt to be _very_ careful who I trust. Surnunos was a non-starter, but there are other ways to gain power, and there are other ways to punish people. I am going to do _a hell _of a lot more to Eduardo than turn him into a rat."

Celine's dark, blunt features suddenly twisted into a sinister smile. "Now you're talking my language, girl."

Wanda squeezed Celine's hand, and then turned to face Eduardo once again. She was faintly surprised to see that Kylie and two brown-skinned little girls had materialised from somewhere. Wanda felt a surge of anger pulse through her as Kylie put her hands on Eduardo and craned her neck to kiss him; and then he stooped to lift the smaller of the little girls into his arms. She was so tiny, like a little doll - he could almost break her if he held her too tightly. Honestly, it was like a bad movie.

"You call that grief?" murmured Wanda, her fists clenched at her sides and her eyes narrowed on the mawkish scene. "Sexy wife, pretty little girls, six months of lying to Bess and fucking your brains out on her all but forgotten - and what did _she_ get? Pain, misery and death. Oh, you have no idea what misery is. Enjoy it while you can, Eduardo Rivera, because I am going to make you wish you'd never been born."

THE END


End file.
